While marrying immediate family members used to be common practice in eras past, these days, people (rightfully) tend to look outside their blood relatives for a partner. Unfortunately for Marcella Hill, she found out a bit late that she accidentally married her cousin. In fact, she was pregnant with his baby at the time.
Hill shared her story in a now-viral TikTok video in which she recalled sitting on the couch with her husband looking for baby names. They browsed FamilySearch to see what they suggested but somehow came across some bizarre info. As it turned out, their grandparents and great-grandparents had the same last name.
“So I’ve never publicly told anyone but I accidentally married my cousin,” Hill began the story. “I was sitting on the couch looking for names for the baby that we were about to have and I was on [genealogy site] FamilySearch. Husband’s next to me on his own FamilySearch and he’s like, ‘Oh that’s funny, we have the same grandma and grandpa’s names.”
“I look at this line and it’s all the same as mine. So I think, ‘Oh no no, you’re still logged into my account.’ Then we start looking at it and we realize my grandpa is his grandma’s first cousin.”
Marcella Hill and her husband are distantly related
@beingmarcellahill Funny story… I accidentally married my cousin. We had no idea our Grandma and Grandpa were 1st cousins. Oops. #funnystory #marcellahill #wakeherup #marriage #marriedlife #awakening #momsoftiktok #grandmasoftiktok
In other words, they had the same great-grandparents. And when they dug a little deeper, they found their relatives lived together when growing up, making Marcella Hill and her cousin slash husband third cousins.
Commenters wondered how it was possible that the couple never realized this before. Didn’t this come up at the wedding? Surely they have other relatives in common. Others believed Marcella shouldn’t have shared the story at all.
As for how it took them so long to find out they’re related, Marcella explained: “We got married at a courthouse after work on a Wednesday. Let’s say we had the wedding, and my grandpa and his grandma were there, and we found out that we were third cousins at the wedding, what were supposed to do?”
