Thursday, October 25, 2007

Good Golly! You Can Marry Your Cousin!

Well, at least you can in Tennessee. Yes, the jokes have some merit. As I study for my domestic relations final, I am learning, among other things, the prohibited degrees of relationship, as detailed in Tenn. Code Annotated 36-3-101.

Under this statute, you cannot marry
1) a lineal ancestor or descendant
2) a lineal ancestor or descendant of a parent
3) a child of a grandparent
4) a lineal descendant of husband or wife
5) a husband or wife of a parent or lineal descendant
(child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, uncle/aunt, sibling, stepchild, stepparent, adopted, son/daughter-in-law).

These requirements in Tennessee cannot be waived!

I started wondering if Woody Allen had lived in Tennessee, would he have been able to marry Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn? I think he could have because Allen never married Farrow, so Soon-Yi was not a stepchild of his. Well, that is a load off my mind.

But you can marry your cousin! Who would have thought.

No comments: