My sister married her first husband with the same surname.

Actually, several -- a Smith, a Patrick, a Madison.

I wonder if grouping people by the alphabet letter of their surnames might lead to more women with a surname starting with, let's say an "M", meeting and marrying men whose surnames also start with an "M".

We are grouped this way in school and at events where you register under the "M" banner. You might just be more likely to be in the company of others with "M" surnames.

Ethnicity will affect the probability of same-last name marriages. For example, the Vietnamese people have 60% of the population sharing three family names. The name Nguyễn alone is estimated to be used by almost 40% of the Vietnamese population, and 90% share 15 names.

Cousins used to marry more frequently. Either to keep property together or just because the families circle did not encourage meeting people from other areas. I decided when I was young that I could not marry anyone from the county that we lived in because they would have been some type of relation to me. My mother's family a couple of generations ago had several weddings where brothers and sisters married brothers and sisters from another family.

My mom and dad had a brother and sister marry. Her youngest sister married his youngest brother. Sadly, she died in childbirth along with their daughter.

A friend from high school married someone with the same last name (Davis). They just celebrated their 50th anniversary recently.

I married a man with a different last name.

I love genealogy. I've found that the surnames don't vary all that much. It was ok to marry your second cousin. Some people did.

My late husband's cousin married a man with the same last name, but since their last name is Smith, the most common surname in the U.S., I guess that wasn't much of a stretch. They married in high school (probably sat in the same row in class ;), have two children, four grandchildren, and have been married 50 years.

My favorite aunt and her first husband had a common ancestor about eight generations removed. I discovered the information when doing some genealogy research, but I don't think she ever believed me--she didn't care much for his family, and didn't welcome the news. She knew her great-grandmother had the same maiden name, but didn't think there was a blood connection between the families. The husband had been deceased for decades when I found the info, and there was no indication he, or his family, had known of the connection. They had no children.

Not quite the same thing, but I found out only recently that one of my friend's mother married two different times to men whose last names were phonetically the same but spelled differently. Wonder what the chances of that happening are?

I know a Jones who married a Jones, and their daughter (Jones) married another Jones. :)

My cousin Tommy Kelly married a woman in New York State. They divorced, she moved back home to Florida, and married a man named----Tommy Kelly!

3 of my Polish aunts married 3 Italian brothers. One of my mother's brothers married one of my father's sisters.

That would be kind of a drag...when you're young and you get married that is one thing you look forward to. I kept my last name as my middle name when I got married. When I got divorced I went back to my maiden name.

Terilyn wrote, "My mom and dad had a brother and sister marry." And Pekemom wrote, "3 of my Polish aunts married 3 Italian brothers. One of my mother's brothers married one of my father's sisters."

This was actually quite common in the 1800s and early 1900s.

In our family tree, we have several instances of siblings from one family marrying siblings from another family. There are also instances where one spouse died and the surviving spouse then married a sibling of the original spouse. And, yes, there are a couple of instances where two unrelated people with the same surname married.

JoanEileen wrote, "My cousin Tommy Kelly married a woman in New York State. They divorced, she moved back home to Florida, and married a man named----Tommy Kelly!"

Offhand, I can think of two instances in our family tree where someone married, was widowed, and then married someone with the same first and middle names, but a different surname.

I wonder if in the case of the fun names grapefruit found whether the wife decided to hyphenate, becoming Olive Melick-Pickles :-)

Not the same name, but I was lucky to marry the second time to a man whose last name started with the same first letter as my first husband. All my lovely monogramed linens/stationary/silver were still just fine! Save a LOT of money! DD had my same initials - could use all my things - and DS was a junior so he had the same initials as his father. We're thrifty that way...

When I was growing up, there was a married couple down the street who were first cousins. They moved temporarily to a state that allowed the marriage and then moved back to their home state. The bride did not need to change her name. They were shunned by their family and most people in town.

Double weddings between two families were common when there were not a lot of people to choose from. We were a much less mobile world. Many people never traveled farther than a horse could take them and bring them home within a day. Twenty miles?

People were also more 'clannish'. Cemeteries have whole sections of people only of one ethnicity. People of different religions didn't intermarry in the same way we do today.

There are far fewer 'arranged marriages' today, and most people never marry someone they've never *met*.

Bob, I hope not! Just think how much fun her name would create. Actually , at that time, I don't think hyphenating was a trend. :)

I went to school with a girl named Terry Miller. Her boyfriend at the time was Terry Miller. I always wondered if they got married.

speaking of siblings marrying siblings: my mother in law and her sister married brothers. Their other two sisters also married brothers from another family. It was common in the tiny town they lived in. There weren't a lot of choices back there. lol