Emma Wedgwood was Charles Darwin's first cousin before they married. Their mothers' families were connected through Josiah Wedgwood, making Emma the daughter of Darwin's maternal uncle, Josiah Wedgwood II.
Emma was born in 1808 at Maer Hall in Staffordshire, into the wealthy Wedgwood pottery family. Charles and Emma knew each other from childhood because the Darwin and Wedgwood families were closely connected. Their shared family background meant that marriage between them was socially familiar in nineteenth-century Britain, although it later became a subject of genetic concern for Darwin.
Charles proposed to Emma in November 1838, after returning from the voyage of HMS Beagle and developing his ideas about the transmutation of species. They married on 29 January 1839 at St Peter's Church in Maer. Emma became not only his wife but also an important household supporter during his long periods of illness and scientific work.
The relationship is sometimes misstated as a second-cousin marriage or confused with another Wedgwood connection. The canonical genealogical description is first cousins: Charles's mother, Susannah Wedgwood, was the sister of Emma's father, Josiah Wedgwood II.