MovieChat Forums > Cold Comfort Farm (1996) Discussion > Who's Related to Whom + Were all the Mar...

Who's Related to Whom + Were all the Marriages Between Cousins?


I love the movie & would like to find the book. I'm a bit confused about who's related to whom. Adam Lambsbreath is Elfine's father but her last name is Starkadder? Judith is married to Amos so was it he who did a wrong to Robert Poste or was Judith married before? And who is the portrait of the bearded man shown w/flowers around it? Urk is a cousin to Elfine & to Miriam? Also Seth & Miriam are cousins & it's hinted he is father of her child &/or children? And why do we never see all these children until the end of the movie? Rennet & Reuben, Flora & Charles are also distant cousins? And wasn't Dick Hawkmonitor expected to marry his cousin Pamela? --Does anyone know what decade (I'm guessing the 50's) it became not so acceptable to marry cousins, especially first cousins?

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[deleted]

Thanks so much for all the info:) I am now in search of the book, do you know if it's available in paperback &/or where I might could find one? Thanks!

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[deleted]

Could someone please answer this question again since the person who posted the answer to the question deleted it, so it would be helpful if someone posted the answer to this question again if one would be so kind?

I am confused about the relations as well and would like to know.

"This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who."

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I'm not sure about all of it. I think that Flora refers to Meriam as "the hired girl" when she writes to Mary, so I don't think Meriam or her mother are related to the Starkadders, they just work on the farm. So Seth isn't related to Meriam, but he may be the father of some of her children. Although at the beginning of the film, Seth isn't in the barn with Meriam, is he? Because Judith tells that girl to "go back to the vicarage." Plus, Miriam is in labor or about to go into labor at the point. Is it ever said whether or not Adam is Elfine's father? He doesn't walk her down the aisle, after all, Reuben does. And she calls him 'Adam,' not 'father.' It's possible that he is not her biological father but has raised her and taken care of her, or maybe he is just very fond of her. At one point Elfine says that the family thinks Rennet is a third cousin, and Dick was expected to marry his cousin, Pamela.

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Seth is the father to Miriam's children because I vaguely remember in the book (which I read a long time ago) Judith calls them Seth's water-voles and later in the book Flora tells Seth in anger, may all your water-voles drown.


"You can't tell the heart, the heart hopes even when it's hopeless"

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There is a family tree in the wikipedia article on Cold Comfort Farm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Comfort_Farm

The characters in the book are slightly different from the movie, though.

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Hope you found a copy. ANY bookstore should be able to order any book in print, there's always Amazon.com For used copies try bookfinder.com And there's always the library, for goodness sakes. If they don't have it, they can do an inter-library loan, and get it from another library.

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Its set in the late 20s/early 30s. In the book, Miriam is just the hired girl, and Seth is the father of all her children.

Urk is Elfine's Cousin. I don;t think Adam is her actual father, but maybe her adopted father perhaps.

I'll drink to that.

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It's actually set sometime after 1946.

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The book came out in 1932, though. Maybe for the movie, they upped the "present day" a bit.

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Think you can dig up the book online in the usual places (like amazon?). I found it several years ago.

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Elfine is the daughter of Amos and Judith and sister to Seth and Ruben. Notice how at Elfine's wedding, Judith places her hand over her heart (IIRC, the first time she does this for any of her children outside of Seth). I think Adam just treated Elfine as a daughter. Urk is cousin to Seth, Ruben and Elfine and Rennett is mentioned as a distant cousin to them as well. I don't think Miriam is a cousin but she is the mother of Seth's children.

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I always thought there was a nudge nudge wink wink in that It was really Urk who was the father on Meriam's children. In the way she gets defensive when Urk gets mad about Elfine and Daycourt getting engaged.



Saying a thing, and doing it, are two separate things.

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Judith married Amos and at some point he did do a wrong to his uncle, Robert Poste. Meriam is just a hired girl, not related to the Starkadders except as the bearer of Seth's children. The children live with Meriam's mother, Mrs. Beetle, who is training them to be jazz musicians.

The portrait is of Fig Starkadder, Aunt Ada's late husband.

Not sure when marrying first cousins fell into disgrace but it was sometime after the 1930s(when the book was written) when science started digging into hereditary diseases (tho' apparently there really isn't much of an increased risk among cousins, not that I'd want to marry any of mine. lol!)

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Well, it's confusing, especially with Amos addressing his mother-in-law Ada as "mother", but here goes:

There were at least two Doom sisters, Ada, and Flora's grandmother. Ada married Fig Starkadder; her sister married a Poste and bore a son Robert (Flora's father).

Ada and Fig were Judith's parents; Judith married her cousin Amos Starkadder, who was either Fig's nephew or more distantly related, and they had three children, Reuben, Seth, and Elfine. Amos is the one who wronged Robert Poste; we never find out how.

Urk and Rennet are Amos' cousins, I'm not sure in what degree; they're not siblings. Adam is not related to the family, but has been there most of his life, and dotes on Elfine as if she were his own. Meriam isn't related to the Starkadders, though she's borne Seth's children; I think she's Mrs Beetle's daughter.

Flora is thus: Ada's great-niece; Judith's first cousin once removed; second cousin to Reuben, Seth, and Elfine; second cousin once removed to Seth's children; and not related to the rest of the Starkadders, who aren't descended from Fig and Ada. Charles is her second cousin on the other side.

Marrying cousins was historically considered a good way to keep land and wealth in the family; in many cultures it still is. As a one-off it isn't a big genetic disadvantage, but when it happens repeatedly in successive generations, you get problems.

____________________________
"An inglorious peace is better than a dishonourable war" ~ John Adams

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in the book though, flora told mrs smiley that judith is a daughter of flora's mother's eldest sister ada doom so flora and judith are actually first cousins. also, reuben married nancy, the daughter of the farmhand mark dolour while rennet married mr mybug.

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Yes, of course... Interestingly, with a gap of only fifteen years between the Doom sisters and sixty years between Ada and Flora, Flora must have been born when her mother was forty-five - and yet she has no elder siblings. Forty-five is dangerously old to have your first child even now. I can see why the adaptor thought it was more plausible for Ada to be her great-aunt rather than her aunt!

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In the novel Amos and Judith are husband and wife. In the movie I got the impression they were brother and sister.

Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.
Mark Twain

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