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[sal880612m]

^the script is called startdwarf IIRC. I have used it myself but I am fairly certain it only works/is supposed to be used to increase the number of dwarfs you start with.

[guitarxe]

DFHack command "fix/population-cap force" will let you forego the two hard coded immigration waves provided your pop-cap is already met. So it is entirely possible to start a fort with only your original seven.

Huh. Had no idea that command existed. It didn't appear neither in the readme or the list of commands from within the console. Thanks!

[foop]

I'm a bit late coming to this thread but I've done this.  I haven't done it far enough that lack of intra-family marriage is a problem, but I've got a thriving fort.

I didn't use any tools to change initial starting conditions or modify migrant waves.  I did use dfhack to clean up the junk left by ambushed merchant caravans because it was killing my frame rate.  I also used it to dispose of the un-slabbable ghosts associated with these caravans.

The basic procedure was this:

1) Embark with 7 multi-purpose dwarves.
2) Built embryonic fortlet with surrounding ditch and external death pit with bespoke retractable bridge.
3) Wait until two of the initial dwarves form a relationship.
4) Draft all the other dwarves to the military* and post them on the retractable bridge.
5) Use the lovers to remove the last link over the isolation ditch, then retract the bridge and drop the unromantic dwarves into the death pit.
6) Hope they die in a protracted fashion so that the lovers don't succumb to melancholy.
7) Repeat death pit process with any migrants.  Oh so many migrants.
Wait for dwarflets.

* As a refinement of the process, the uniform for the military consisted only of socks.

The biggest issues I had were:

1) Migrants and caravans.  It took ages until migrants stopped arriving, because of the issues you get having isolated dwarves with population cap and liaisons.  Nobody seemed scared of migrating to my fortress, despite the fact that everybody who did was drafted into the military, assigned a uniform consisting only of socks, and then dropped into a pit to face lingering starvation, madness, and death.  This meant that making, engraving, and erecting slabs took up a lot of my family dwarfs' time. 

2) Managing other tasks while children were growing up.  Food and drink are fairly easy to handle.  Getting a clothing industry established well enough to look after unproductive children before you have any other adults was a little fiddly but not unsurmountable.  Having a compact proto-fort is key; when you've only got two working dwarves you don't want to have them spend all their time wandering around with bags of seeds.