A Social Study of the Russian German 85 
Of the foreign-born, Germany has the far greater proportion, 
but this is partly true because the largest foreign group in Lincoln 
outside the Russian Germans is the Empire Germans. Some of 
the native-born are also of German parentage while others are of 
Irish, English, Scotch, and Bohemian stock. The largest pro- 
portion of them, however, are probably American. 
The native-born Russian German who has been reared in the 
settlements in Lincoln shows the same general tendency of the 
foreign-born to marry within his own nationality; while those 
who have been reared outside this group, almost without excep- 
tion contract mixed alliances. Out of 53 native-born Russian 
German women, 23 married foreign-born Russian Germans, 4 
married native-born Russian Germans, and 26 married Ameri- 
cans. The same proportion appears for 34 native-born Russian 
German men, 12 of whom married foreign-born and 5, native- 
born Russian Germans, and 17 married Americans. So long, 
then, as the Russian Germans remain within the settlement, they 
show only a slight tendency to intermarry, even though they may 
be American born; but when they move outside their group, they 
are more and more inclined to mixed marriages, an increasing 
evidence of their assimilation. 
It has been pointed out how little the German colonists in 
Russia have intermarried, even outside their own village. In view 
of this endogamy, their attitude toward the marriage of blood 
relatives is of especial importance. Since marriage is an ecclesi- 
astical institution in Russia, each religious group retains its 
peculiar customs and laws. For the Greek Orthodox and the 
German Catholics, the marriage of cousins is forbidden; while the 
Evangelical Germans permit it.° Among the wealthy Protestant 
colonists, the marriage of cousins-german very often occurs, in 
order to keep the property within the family or within the same 
social circle. But popular sentiment among the common people 
strongly opposes such unions, although the children of step- 
brothers or sisters commonly marry. 
79 For a discussion of this subject at various periods and among dif- 
ferent peoples, cf. Howard, A History of Matrimonial Institutions, index 
under “Forbidden degrees.” 
211 
