Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2014
In this work the results of a research on the consanguinity of populations living in the Lodigiano, the southern part of the province of Milan, are exposed and briefly commented.
It has been found:
1) a relatively low incidence of consanguineous marriages from the third to the sixth degree (uncle-niece and aunt-nephew, first cousins, first cousins once removed, second cousins and double relatives), which varies with the time and the number of inhabitants of the «comuni»: in the whole, from a frequency of 2,27% in the years 1900-1923 they have decreased to 1,54%, in the years 1933-1956;
2) correspondently low coefficients of inbreeding, being F 0,00101 in the first period and F 0,00061 in the second;
3) no negative correlation between the number of inhabitants of the «comuni» and the incidence of consanguineous marriages.
The marked difference between these results and that obtained for the other part of the province of Milan shows how great the variability of this phaenomenon is even in small areas; variability that should be accurately evaluated and taken into account for studies of population genetics.