Brilliant. Tempting to put it on the wall of the “smallest room” here.
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Surprising how the same few surnames keep cropping up in mountain valleys in France. Everyone is related to someone a village or so away, plenty of in-breeding here! Don’t point it out, though…
There’s a more logical explanation for that - families in France tend to stick together around the same locale rather than scatter wide. No suggestion of inter-breeding at all.
Don’t forget that daughters retain their family name rather than take the name of their husband 
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Not in our family - Wife and her 4 sisters, all married have taken the surnames of their husbands - All married in the 70s & 80s - Maybe it’s just something they do in this part of France.
Or maybe you are referring to the formal use of the epouse in married womens bureaucratic correspondence.
no, I’m offering an alternative explanation to the strange claim that there is plenty of in-breeding here (wherever here is).
Yes l undestand that but your alternative explanation only carries weight if it is true.
as is the case for the claim made by the person who made it 
They may take it as a nom d’usage or nom d’épouse and be universally known as nothing but, but legally their surname is their nom de jeune fille. We aren’t like ‘les anglais’ who can decide to call themselves anything they like.
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Thank you @vero - My wife’s 5 brothers are or were all married to women from North Lot et Garonne or Sud-Dordogne save for one of them (Divorced & remarried him) and took the men’s family name - It can be a bit confusing in a formal setting as they are all Mme C_________. Some are ELUs and on the same Conseil municipale as some of the men. I often refer to the village as C_________ville as they are now large sprawling family in their own right. But definitely no in-breeding.
how many wives have you got?
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Another big win for the Apostrophe Police 
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More a spelling issue than just an apostrophe Dan
I think you meant “my wife’s 5 brothers” note the “f”, not the “v”
I can recommend the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves which you can be notified about when it comes on line
It’s a good publication - as you might expect, I already have a copy.
Sorry Graham - I will try harder l promise - So another big win for the spelling police
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not spelling actually, my mistake… more grammar perhaps?
Getting a little provocative now - So another big win for the grammar police, perhaps!- What do you think @james is it my? grammar or spelling l need to improve?
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haha You been reading Sun Tzu’s The Art of War Dan and applying it’s principles to the best and most appropriate ways to back down from an argument?
This is not an argument Graham, I thought that picking me up on my apostrophe, spelling, grammar, whatever was a little churlish and nothing whatsoever to do with the thread and intended to belittle me into an “Argument” I responded in a humorous way but you just won’t let it go.
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Well, in actuality Dan, you are normally so precise about things that it could well be that you have more than one wife who between them have 5 brothers. I just wanted to be clear, that’s all. And after all, it was said with the very best of intentions and humour. It’s just a pity that some people can’t just accept it for what it was and shrug it off.
Anyway, back on topic of the claim of in-breeding, @vero nails it I think.
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Anyone who posts ‘my wives five brothers’ is going to get the piss taken out of them. It is funny, that’s all.
And tagging James is childish. He has better things to do than referee. Trust me. 
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He doesn’t need to tag James ,James is already following us trouble makers to keep an eye on what we post
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