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Iceland’s No. 1 Dating Rule: Make Sure You’re Not Cousins

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V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
WSJ

Geir Konráð Theodórsson thought he had chemistry with a young woman he was conversing with via the popular dating app Tinder. The conversations were going well, so they decided to move it to Facebook. Facebook revealed some mutual friends between the pair: her mother, her grandmother and the sister of her grandmother.

“This is suspicious,” she messaged him.
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Mr. Theodórsson, 30, lives in Borgarnes, a town located on a peninsula in western Iceland. It has a population of fewer than 2,000. With their mutual friends signaling a red flag, he logged into Íslendingabók.

Íslendingabók, or the Book of Icelanders, is an online database that contains the full genealogy of 720,000 Icelanders, living and deceased. Assembled by combining old Icelandic genealogy books and church records, it launched online in January 2003 and gives Icelanders an outlet for their craving for genealogy, an ardent hobby for many in the country of 330,000.

Now, as social media and apps expand the dating pool, many people are turning to the website to ensure they aren’t swimming in the same gene pool.

On Íslendingabók, Mr. Theodórsson discovered he and the woman from Tinder had the same great-grandfather.

“We decided to not speak of this again and try to avoid each other at the next clan meeting,” Mr. Theodórsson said.
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S

studyguy

Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4utH5uWK6c

3d8643a7897121cf99cc361882eb11f0.jpg
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Always amazes me to remember how small a population Iceland has. My home state has 24 times the people.

At what population size does this stop being a quirk of dating and an actual danger to the genetic health of a community, though?
 
J

Joe Shlabotnik

Banned
Fuchsdh said:
Always amazes me to remember how small a population Iceland has. My home state has 24 times the people.

At what population size does this stop being a quirk of dating and an actual danger to the genetic health of a community, though?
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It's not really a genetic danger unless you're siblings.

(Insert George Michael Bluth gif here)
 
V

valkillmore

Member
Trump - 'Iceland is fantastic, some of the most beautiful people, and their women, I love their women. Dont we love their women?'
 
M

Mutanthands

Member
The practicalities you have to face in different countries are always facinating. With a population that small, it truly is a posibility, isn't it?
 
J

JonnyDBrit

Member
Knew about this for a while. To provide an additional factoid (IIRC, anyway): That Iceland maintains this relatively small population without too many genetic issues is actually a point of study among some scientists, as it provides a working model for population stability.
 
Rentahamster

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I spoofed my IP to be in Iceland a couple times on Tinder. I wondered why I seemed to get more matches there than in certain other places. Maybe it's because I obviously don't look like I could be anyone's cousin.

I should do that again, and then change my bio to: "I am definitely not related to you ;)"
 
K

killer rin

Member
That must be so heartbreaking (and awkward). To find somebody who you hit it off with so well, only to then find out that you are related and have to then call it off.
 
E

eyeball_kid

Member
Wouldn't the same great-grandfather make them second cousins? I'd say that's fair game. There's very little genetic risk at that point. Maybe there's cultural stigma is Iceland, though with the small population I'm surprised they'd consider that a dealbreaker.
 
B

Beartruck

Member
Same great grandfather seems like it could be pretty distant. I'd probably say its safe for a hookup, if not a long term thing.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
StopMakingSense said:
Third cousins.
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Being in a relationship with third cousins isn't bad at all. At that point I don't see any problem. First cousins I am not even attracted too, sort of if I had a sister. I've only ever met one second cousin before, but even then I'd stay away if I figured that out. But third or more cousins? Not a problem at all.

Some of my friends have huge families, with gatherings including fourth cousins, which as a white dude strikes me as weird. I've never even the names of my fourth cousins, much less spent time with them.
 
A

adamantypants

Member
eyeball_kid said:
Wouldn't the same great-grandfather make them second cousins? I'd say that's fair game. There's very little genetic risk at that point. Maybe there's cultural stigma is Iceland, though with the small population I'm surprised they'd consider that a dealbreaker.
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Lonely1 said:
Is this really a problem!? I would say they are far away enough.
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Beartruck said:
Same great grandfather seems like it could be pretty distant. I'd probably say its safe for a hookup, if not a long term thing.
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giphy.gif
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TIL GAF wants to date their cousin

Xe4 said:
Being in a relationship with third cousins isn't bad at all. At that point I don't see any problem. First cousins I am not even attracted too, sort of if I had a sister. I've only ever met one second cousin before, but even then I'd stay away if I figured that out. But third or more cousins? Not a problem at all.

Some of my friends have huge families, with gatherings including fourth cousins, which as a white dude strikes me as weird. I've never even the names of my fourth cousins, much less spent time with them.
Click to expand...

Maybe because I'm Filipino and we breed like rabbits, but I've met plenty of third cousins, cousins once and twice removed, second cousins (and removed), remarried cousins in law, etc. For this reason I'd never knowingly date an even mildly distant cousin.

Darksol said:
To be fair, making sure you aren't family is solid advice no matter where you live.
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I hear it's a problem in South Korea too. Not because of small population, but because lots of people are named Kim, Lee, or Park.
 
S

Strax

Member
jotun? said:
I'm pretty sure I learned of this through Fibbage. Something like "Islendiga-App is an app that allows Icelanders to ________", with the truth being "avoid sleeping with their cousins"

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...-bump-their-phones-before-bumping-in-bed.html
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Piecake said:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...d-now-theres-an-app-for-that-25175819/?no-ist
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Ugh.

It's a joke app that nobody uses but everbody downloaded 4-5 years ago. I've never seen or heard of anybody using this app.

Ugh.
 
M

Mutanthands

Member
Xe4 said:
Being in a relationship with third cousins isn't bad at all. At that point I don't see any problem. First cousins I am not even attracted too, sort of if I had a sister. I've only ever met one second cousin before, but even then I'd stay away if I figured that out. But third or more cousins? Not a problem at all.

Some of my friends have huge families, with gatherings including fourth cousins, which as a white dude strikes me as weird. I've never even the names of my fourth cousins, much less spent time with them.
Click to expand...

Some people are just not down with Cousin-Love, no matter how distant.
 
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