OK, I checked most masterlists that I thought this might be on, and I didn't see one like this, so sorry if it's a duplicate. Feel free to move or delete!

I was listening to a radio show about cousins marry other cousins in Asia or something, and that got me thinking (I know, a thing I don't do very often!).
In DH pg. 215, Umbridge says (when questioned on where she got her locket)


This got me thinking about the Malfoys, and how families like them think you should keep it in the traditional wizarding line. Going by what Umbridge says about her being related to almost all of them, basically, you would probably end up marrying one of your relations, however distant.

So, what do you think????

Happy posting!

I never thought about that before but it is true. You would end up marrying one of your relatives. OMG. that would stink.

That's an old tradition, actually. You should see the Hapsburg family trees. They Hapsburgs went down probably because they kept marrying their cousins (or worse: marrying an uncle to a niece ).

You think it can't get any better? Listen to this: In Ancient Egypt, they would actually marry the pharoah to his sister! All to keep the royal bloodline from getting sullied. Ridiculous, isn't it?

O.o It's ridiculous. With guinea pigs, if you inbreed for a certain trait, you'll end up getting deformities, like pigs without eyes, or pigs who can't smell, or pigs whose circulatory systems don't work. Plus there's a much better rate for stillborns.

I bet the same thing goes for wizards. They'll get all kinds of deformities. If all these wizards keep inbreeding to try keeping the pureblood, they're eventually going to have more Squibs than wizards! Sounds like fun, huh? n.n

Eeww...if I were a pure-blood in that position I think I would try to meet some pure-blood wizards from other countries! Maybe that's the reason why, as Prongs-daughter-in-law (Cool name! ) says, we have pureblood squibs, something that I'd never thought about before. J.K said that Muggle-borns have at leat one wizard somewhere back in their family tree that they inherit the magic from, although magic is a very dominant gene. I'd always thought that Squibs just got the unlucky side of the coin.

yup pure bloods have absolutley no problems in-breeding...like Sirius's mom and dad were second cousins. but they only made that illegal in our world because it cuases the genes to thin and formes genetic mutations.

It's shown by the Family Tree in OotP how all the pure-blood families are all inter-related. And in HBP Dumbledore said that the Gaunts were famous for marrying their own cousins. In the memory of the Gaunts, Merope and Morfin are described as having eyes that stared in opposite directions. So if they only married their own cousins, then it's probably because of that they had deformities.

I think, actually, at one point Sirius said something about them having to marry their cousins, which is really odd, but i guess if they really wanted to keep the purebloods alive and well... Ew...

Pureblood do have to marry cousins and other similar relatives, there are so few of them. And then, sometimes, there's a decent person who doesn't want to marry another pureblood, and their ranks shrink again. So, sooner or later, they're all going to die out. But that could take hundreds of years.

If a family, like the Malfoys, wants to stay pure, the members will have to marry someone related to them (close or not). If they had married anyother way, they would not have stayed pure. Remeber...Ron says is Chamber of Secrets that they [the wizzards] had to marry muggles or they would have died out. A lot of old families (at least the male line) have completely disappeared by the time Harry comes along, so naturally, if one can say that he/she comes from a "pure" family, it would make them look better (to Voldemort and his kind...of course, this would not fly with the Weasleys). I am in doubt that any family is really pure, though...just a thought

You're right! They have to disown every decent wizard that comes along to stay 'pure', but that person is still genetically related to the family, so they aren't pure anymore. Sirius ends the Blacks by being a normal, good person and not wanting to raise another kid into the pure blood mania. But those people, like Sirius, blotch up the not so pure name of the 'Pureblood families'.

In the fifth book when Harry and Sirius are looking at the Black Family tree Harry makes a comment about Sirius being related to the Malfoys and Sirius tells him that since there are so few pure-blood families left anymore they are all interrelated. He says something about how most people are half blood or less because if they hadn't married outside the wizarding race then they would have all died out and the ones that are still purebloods had to marry family at some point, it just may be distant family.

This was really common everywhere in the past because people didn't have much of a choice. They lived in small towns, they grew up there and spent their entire lives there, everybody was related somewhere down the line because of the lack of other people to marry. As technology got more advanced and people started traveling farther from home more often they were able to meet and marry people they weren't somehow related to. And as doctors began to realize that marrying your 2nd or 3rd cousin caused genetic mutations it became less acceptable so it's not very practiced anymore, at least not in the U.S. or any other major world power (that I can think of...I may be mistaken) But even as recently as the early 1900's the practice would have been fairly common.

Ok, I'm done rambling with my little bits of useless historical information now

Well, in my opinion, it's not particularly a wizarding habit to marry between cousins; otherwise the Gaunts wouldn't have been so well-known for that. And I never thought of that, but it's true: despite marrying a cousin one time won't be bad for the kids (likely), marrying between cousins for ages will drive the breed to mutation. I understand what you are talking about, Prongs' Daughter-in-Law: not so serious, but as an example, my dog is supposed to be Yorkshire, because both of her parents were, but it's more than sure (since I don't know them, but my aunt gave it to me) that they were siblings (which is worse). My dog, however, has got longer legs and an hirsute hair, not very yorkshire-ish.
I suppose most of the wizarding families are related, but not between close relatives, but with distant ones, but it's true what Sirius (and so Ron wisely said in CoS), said, told in brief: that whether you marry inside your family, distant or not, or you disapear.

I don't think pure-bloods marry really close to their blood line...that would be sick! But it's hard not to marry some sort of relative if you want to keep the "pure-blood" status.

You know Harry is related to the Black family, weasley family (without marrying Ginny) and the Gaunt family. Which means...oh yes...Harry and Voldy are kin!!

Dawn

Wow where did you find that out? Or are you just saying that basically every wizard is related somehow?
Yeah people marrying relatives has been around for awhile even though it seems so shocking now. My great-great-grandparents were cousins, but I think I'm fairly normal, haha. My great aunt was a little off though....

Well, this certainly is an interesting thread! I have two responses to the posts.

1. How is Harry related to the Weasley's without marrying Ginny? Are the Blacks related to the Gaunts? I can see where that connection is made..but i'm missing the one with the Weasley's.

2.Who did Draco end up marrying?? Do you think it was a cousin or a family member? Or do you think he drifted away from the "rules" and married outside his family and messed up the bloodlines???

Personally, I can't see him marrying outside the family. Pureblood lineage was too important to the Malfoy's and Draco was very dedicated to his family and what they wanted out of him.

I will break it down here....I hope it doesn't get to complicated....

There were 3 Peverell brothers..the ones that each had a hollow from death...

Antioch Peverell Cadmus Peverell Ignotus Peverell

Harry's grandparents are related to Ignotus Peverell The brother that had the invisibility cloak...this is harry's distant relative. Great x? Grandfather

Now the gaunt family stems off by Cadmus Peverell, I know he had the resurrection stone, which ultimately was the stone in the Gaunts ring. So Harry is related to Voldy by a very distant Uncle...Uncle Cadmus
also from this blood line is Salazar Slytherin

lupin<3tonks...I did make a mistake there...Harry is related to the Weasley's by marrying Ginny and in turn is related to the Blacks by Authur Weasley. Who is the son of Cedrella Black and Septimus Weasley.

There is also a Potter, name unknown directly related to the blacks by marriage way before Harry was born

Antioch Peverell Had the Elder Wand and was murdered...his own blood line stops with him


Found it on their family trees.
Dawn

Thanks for clearing that up!! I knew it was there somewhere I just wasn't sure. I didn't remember all those relations Like I had no idea who Athur's parents were! My sister was lookiing at the big family tree last night on Wikipedia, I guess had I looked at it too, my question would have been answered. Maybe I'll go look now, and my Draco question will be...

Lupin<3tonks ~ haha, silly seester of mine ! You should have come to me for your answers !

It is all a bit sick and twisted isn't ? I can't see myself marrying back into the family, and they surely did not always marry distant distant relatives.

As Hermione17 touched on - it actually may be possible that Harry was related to Ginny before they were married. Of course this is just speculation and HP-Lexicon don't think that the Charlus Potter that Dorea Black married was the Charlus Potter that was James Potter's father's father. If anyone understands what I just said. BUT ! If it ~IS~ the Charlus Potter married in to the Black family then that means that Harry could be related to Ginny through Cedrella Black's marriage of Septimus Weasley. He would also be related through the fact that Molly Weasley was originally a Prewett and they were married in to the Black bloodline at one point, therefore, another connection could be made - assuming that Charlus Potter is the Potter married to Dorea and ancestor to the Potters... Okay I'm done repeating that and being all confusing - ah ! I have to say, my argument is weak, but I doubt that there are any other pureblood Potters that aren't related to the pureblood Potters... So it's got to be them right ? She would have been disowned otherwise, but she never was.

And of course we all know he's a distant relative of Tom Riddle Jr. which means Salazaar Slytherin and so on and so forth because basically all of the wizarding lines are related.

Draco Malfoy married Astoria/Asteria Greengrass, the younger sister of Daphne Greengrass (2 years younger). She was a pureblood, and I suppose it is safe to assume a Slytherin as well, like her sister.

And there is a squib in the Black family - Marius Black, but it's sort off odd that he is the only one noted in the last few generations. It should be more, with all the inbreeding going on, but maybe there's some way around it, or just enough of other bloodlines to keep them from being all funkedified.

Does anyone know where I can actually find a Malfoy Family tree ? I'd love to know who all is married into their family.

~ihkny

ihknygo to Wikipedia. I just go to google and type in Malfoy family tree and a bunch of sites will come up..and I usually go to Wikipedia. They seem the most reliable.


Dawn

It's just a little disturbing, because just about everyone who is a pureblood or halfblood is related to just about everyone else, regardless of how distant. So they pretty much can't avoid marrying a relative, without marrying a muggle or muggleborn. And they may be relatives of the muggleborns as well, since they're all supposed to have a magical ancestor somewhere.