NEW YORK (PIX11) — New York may not be the first state you would think of when you think of a “Kissing cousin state” but it in fact, is one.
Although New York law explains that the state “doesn’t permit marriage licenses to be issued to an ancestor and a descendant, such as between a parent and child or grandparent and grandchild,” a marriage of first cousins is legal and would be protected by the state.
New York also allows a niece to marry her mother’s half-brother, but she cannot marry her mother’s full brother.
All these terms might be tricky, but a website is dedicated to explaining cousin marriage.
A first cousin is a non-sibling with whom you share grandparents, meaning this person is usually family-related and is the offspring of an uncle or an aunt. A second cousin is a non-sibling who shares great-grandparents, according to American weddings.
“In the United States, only 0.2% of marriages are between first or second cousins. To put that into perspective, about 3,980 of the 1.99 million couples married in the U.S. in 2021 may have been cousins,” according to American Weddings.
New York and the states of Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia allow cousins to marry each other. It is also legal in the District of Columbia, according to Cousin Couples. It’s also legal in Washington, D.C. and in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
For more information on first-cousin marriage and other frequently asked questions regarding marriage, click here.