Obviously this cannot be taken as typical of the actual distribution of consanguineous marriages, since the more distant the degree, the more difficult it is to determine the relationship. However it is very evident that the coefficient of attraction is at its maximum between first cousins, and probably there are actually more marriages between first cousins than between those of any other recognized degree of consanguinity. But the two degrees of 1-1/2 cousins and second cousins taken together probably number more intermarriages than first cousins alone. Allowing four children to a family, three of whom marry and have families, the actual number of cousins a person would have on each degree would be: First, 16; 1-1/2, 80; Second, 96; 2-1/2, 480; Third, 576; Fourth, 3,456. The matter is usually complicated by double relationships, but it will readily be seen that the consanguineal attraction would hardly be perceptible beyond the degree of third cousins.[27] [Footnote 27: See note, _infra_, p. 29.] Omitting, as in the discussion on page 24, those genealogies in which only the male line is given we have the following table: TABLE VIII. -------------------------------------------------------------------- |First | 1-1/2 |Second | 2-1/2 | Third |Distant| |cousins|cousins|cousins|cousins|cousins|cousins|Total -------------------------------------------------------------------- Same-name | 24 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 50 Different-name| 62 | 15 | 33 | 12 | 23 | 26 | 171 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Total | 86 | 20 | 43 | 16 | 25 | 31 | 221 -------------------------------------------------------------------- It would naturally be supposed that with each succeeding degree of relationship the ratio of same-name to different-name cousin marriages would increase in geometrical proportion, viz. first cousins, 1:3; second cousins, 1:9; third cousins, 1:27, etc., but on the other hand there is the tendency for families of the same name to hold together even in migration as may be proved by the strong predominance of certain surnames in nearly every community. So that the ratio or same-name to different-name second cousin marriage may not greatly exceed 1:4. Beyond this degree any estimate would be pure guesswork. However the coefficient of attraction between persons of the same surname would undoubtedly be well marked in every degree of kinship, and conversely there are few same-name marriages in which some kinship, however remote, does not exist.