86 Hattie Plum Williams 
When the Russian Germans first came to Nebraska, immigrants 
not infrequently married their cousins in order to avoid the 
greater calamity of marrying outside their nationality. But rela- 
tives always compare the children of these unions with others, and 
blame any physical defect upon this relationship. However, in 
spite of a generally strong feeling against consanguineous unions, 
the marriage of cousins today is a rather common occurrence 
with the Russian Germans in Lincoln, although since 1905 it is 
contrary to the law of the state of Nebraska.®° | 
These alliances occur among persons of every social class. A 
young woman of exceptionally good family, native-born, recently 
wished to marry her cousin, whose brother, a few years previ- 
ously, had married her sister. The parents refused their con- 
sent on the ground of the relationship, but the couple decided to 
marry in spite of the parents’ wishes. It used to be customary, 
when the Nebraska statute forbade divorced couples to marry 
within six months, for such persons to evade the law by going to 
Council Bluffs, Iowa, and getting married at once. Laboring 
under the impression that the law against consanguineous mar- 
riages might be evaded in the same way, this couple took a wit- 
ness and went to Council Bluffs to have the ceremony performed. 
But Iowa also forbids such marriages, and since the family names 
of the contracting parties were identical, the clerk suspected an 
illegal case and refused a license. However, the parties and their 
witness swore that they were not related and the clerk finally 
issued the license and the ceremony was performed. 
In another case shortly previous to the one related above, a girl 
seventeen years old was sent a ticket by an aunt and uncle ; and 
when she arrived from Russia, she was summarily married off to 
their son, her cousin, the matter of age and relationship both being 
arbitrarily adjusted to suit the Nebraska laws! No objections 
80 Laws of Nebraska, 1005, 449; Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, 1905, 
1058, Chapter 52, section 3. 
81 The age of consent in Nebraska is twenty-one for males and eighteen 
for females; the age of parental consent is eighteen for males and sixteen 
for females. Cf. Howard, 4 History of Matrimonial Institutions, II, 
471-473. 
