Famous cousin couples who had White House weddings

On August 8th, the Davie County Enterprise-Record in North Carolina had an article about weddings in the White House:

There was not another wedding there until March 9, 1820, when Maria Hester Monroe, the daughter of President James Monroe and his wife, Elizabeth Kortwright Monroe, married her first cousin, Samuel L. Gouverneur.  The restoration of the White House had been completed in 1817 so the building was in good condition when Maria Monroe decided to have her wedding.  The wedding of the president’s daughter caused a bit of feud with the Diplomatic Corp because the Monroes did not follow the protocols which the previous First Ladies had established.  The Diplomatic Corp was not invited to the Monroe/Gouverneur wedding which was considered an insult. The diplomats and their wives were not even invited to a reception to congratulate the newlyweds.  Such treatment did not help the relationship between the Diplomatic Corp and the Monroe administration.

All of that did not have any effect on the wedding itself which is believed to have been held in the Blue Room though some writers believe that the wedding was held in the unfinished East Room. The Blue Room was decorated in the French style furniture with which the Monroes had come so enambured when he served as envoy to France.  President Monroe ordered great quantities of French furniture for the White House.

Maria and Samuel had four children, including a daughter who died in infancy and a son who was born a deaf mute.

The next White House wedding did not occur until 1828 when John Adams II married Mary Catherine Hellen in the Blue Room. John Adams II is the only son of a president to be wed in the White House.

The story of their marriage is tumultuous. John Quincy Adams and his wife, Louisa Catherine, had three sons, George, John and Charles Francis, and all three fell in love with the flirtatious Mary Catherine Hellen, their first cousin.  Mary Catherine was the orphaned daughter of Louisa Adams’ sister, Nancy Johnson Hellen. Louisa Catherine, the wife of John Quincy Adams, cared for Mary Catherine and her siblings.  The Hellen children lived at the White House throughout John Quincy Adams’ term.

George, the oldest Adams son, graduated from Harvard and was living in Boston and reading law in Daniel Webster’s office.   Mary Catherine was fascinated by the handsome older man who was taken with her delightful ways.  In the summer of 1923, George asked his father’s consent to become engaged. Mr. Adams asked some questions and then agreed.

Even after Mary Catherine was engaged to his older brother, Charles Francis could not shake off his infatuation for his cousin.  Mary Catherine seemed to enjoy her power over Charles Francis when he came home from Harvard, even though she was engaged to his brother.

To complicated matters, John, the second son who was living at the White House and studying law under the guidance of his father because he had been expelled from Harvard when he participated during a student rebellion in 1823, became infatuated with Mary Catherine.  As the romance between John II and Mary Catherine was going on in Washington, the two brothers who lived in Boston often got together, but Charles Francis could not bring himself to tell George what he thought was going on between John and Mary Catherine.

Mrs. Adams was aware of all that was going on, and she told the former president that John and Mary Catherine should get married right away. Mr. Adams couldn’t bring himself to approve such a marriage. The engagement was on-again, off again, and, then, Mrs. Adams announced the news of the wedding date, Feb. 25, 1828. On that date, John and Mary Catherine were married in the oval drawing room.

John and Mary were the parents of two daughters, but only one of them lived to adulthood.

Can you marry your first cousin in North Carolina?

On November 16th, The Charlotte Observer had an article about cousin marriage:

It is actually legal to marry your first cousin in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Judicial Branch.

However, marriages between double first cousins (the children of two sisters who married two brothers) are prohibited, state law says.

The validity of marriage licenses between cousins depends on the state, according to LegalMatch.

“For example, there are certain states that make distinctions between the categories of cousins as well as half-cousins and adopted cousins,” LegalMatch says. “In general, the rule of thumb is that the more distant the blood relationship between the parties, the more likely the state will allow a marriage to occur between them.”

Cousin Marriages May Be Taboo, but They're Not Genetic Disasters

In 2008, Discover had an article about cousin marriage:

In the western world, marriage between first cousins is labeled incest or inbreeding, and in the United States the practice is banned or restricted in 31 states. But a new essay argues that such laws are based on an outdated notion of the genetic risks involved in cousins marrying and reproducing.

[T]hose laws "seem ill-advised" and "should be repealed," a geneticist and medical historian write.... "Neither the scientific nor social assumptions that informed them are any longer defensible" [Scientific American].

First cousins share about an eighth of their genes, and are therefore more likely to receive two copies of some recessive gene that poses health problems. Scientists had assumed that the children of first cousins would therefore be more likely to be born with birth defects. But coauthor Hamish Spencer writes that the risk of congenital defects is about 2 per cent higher than average for babies born to first-cousin marriages – with the infant mortality about 4.4 per cent higher – which is on a par with the risk to babies born to women over 40. "Women over the age of 40 have a similar risk of having children with birth defects and no one is suggesting they should be prevented from reproducing," said Professor Spencer [The Independent].