Conclusions on marriages

In 1961, new to Lacey Green, I was frequently told "the old villagers are all inbred", as if they were of no interest. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have now studied most of these families and in only one instance did I find first cousins married to each other. Certainly they married into other local families. As children they would have known each other, as (another thing said to me) "they just ran around like a lot of ragamuffins". If only children could have that freedom now. Rarely did the men leave the area, although the girls sometimes did, as they went "into service". From the number of families intermarried, where first one couple got married then siblings of them married each other, made me think how close the families were, There were also some where girls from away came into service here, married here, and they would have brought new blood into the villages. This would not have happened until after 1823 with the Inclosures, when bigger houses came, such as a vicarage and farms were enlarged.