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What is your largest brood?

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  • What is your largest brood?

    Hi all,

    I came across a couple in one of my branches this week that had 16 children, I then remembered in my earlier research one of my Great Great Grandad's having a large brood - 22 (2 marriages) over 42 years
    What are your biggest broods?

    Tessie

  • #2
    Not quite as big as yours, but my GG Grandad had 19 children over 35 years (2 wives), but only one of the first 10 lived beyond the age of 2 - my Great Grandmother, who died in 1947 aged 82.

    On my husbands side his Great Grandmother had 16 children (1 marriage) and amazingly only two of them died in infancy. I don't know how they did it, but in 1911 there were three generations, including a newborn, all living in a 2-up, 2-down terrace. The men were all coal miners so the women must have really had their work cut out

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    • #3
      In my own tree, 19 to one woman. 22 in another family, three wives, two sets of twins. By the time the youngest of these 22 was born, the eldest was a grandfather! Took some researching because the man who married 3 times married two women with the same name, lol. Nearly drove me mad sorting that lot out and it was only monumental inscriptions which finally resolved it.

      My ex husband's mother's grandmother (still with me?) was one of 23 children born into a very wealthy Egyptian Jewish family. They all survived and all did great things with their lives. I wish I had asked questions though - the youngest child was given to his eldest sister to bring up. She had been married a good few years but had no children of her own. Was this a supreme sacrifice by her mother, or was it I've had enough of babies, lol.

      OC

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      • #4
        I know I have maternal g'g'g'grandparents that had 16 children (incl 1 set of twins, I think) - all from one mother. I think I have photos of 13 of them.

        If you get into half sibs, I haven't tried to count - but anyone who has early Mormon pioneers in their ancestry has very large family counts... ;)

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by teasie View Post
          Not quite as big as yours, but my GG Grandad had 19 children over 35 years (2 wives), but only one of the first 10 lived beyond the age of 2 - my Great Grandmother, who died in 1947 aged 82.

          On my husbands side his Great Grandmother had 16 children (1 marriage) and amazingly only two of them died in infancy. I don't know how they did it, but in 1911 there were three generations, including a newborn, all living in a 2-up, 2-down terrace. The men were all coal miners so the women must have really had their work cut out
          Wow Teasie that's sad about only one out of ten living past 2 what a lot of people in one house

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by PhotoFamily View Post
            I know I have maternal g'g'g'grandparents that had 16 children (incl 1 set of twins, I think) - all from one mother. I think I have photos of 13 of them.

            If you get into half sibs, I haven't tried to count - but anyone who has early Mormon pioneers in their ancestry has very large family counts... ;)
            I haven't come across many with half siblings (luckily I think lol) and definately no Mormons! Would be interesting tho - I love finding children out

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            • #7
              20 over 40 years but most online trees haven't killed off wife #1, wife #2 had the same first name and was 23 years his junior.

              2x great grandmother married at 18 and had 14 babies by the time she was 40, the last 4 had very short lives and she followed them to the grave at 46.

              Comment


              • #8
                OH's gt gt grandfather and his wife had 20 children between 1832 and 1868, ie 36 years, and all survived to at least the age of 21.

                She was 4 months pregnant when she got married at the age of 17, and died age 54 in 1869. Her husband died 3 weeks before she did at the age of 62. He died of a disease of the kidneys, and she died of Chronic Heart Disease ................. which somehow has never surprised me!

                There is a family story that she had the 20th child, but it died so she had another child to bring the number back to 20.

                I cannot substantiate that story, unless there was JUST time between February 1858 and May 1860 for a recovery, pregnancy, a birth, recovery and birth. There was never less than a year between births, which looks as though she was allowed a short breather between each one.

                There is absolutely no record of any burial for a child in 1859 at the church, and all were baptised, although there were some gaps of 3 or more months between birth and baptism in the later births. The family seems to have been stalwart members of the local church, and that leads me to think that if there had been a stillbirth, the person delivering the child might well have declared that it took 2 breaths so she had performed an emergency baptism, thus allowing the baby to be buried in the church yard (and a record of that).

                That's the reason I've been rather discounting the family story.

                There is only one clue to the fact that the story might just possibly be true ........ the last child born in 1860 had 3 first names, the first of which is Latin for 21. All of the previous 19 only had 1 name.

                The births go .........

                Born 26 May 1832

                Born 30 December 1833

                Born 28 June 1835,

                Born 13 July 1837

                Born 6 December 1839

                Born 02 June 1841

                Born 20 December 1842

                Born 06 March 1844

                Born 06 August 1845

                Born 10 February 1847

                Born 01 July 1848

                Born 02 July 1849

                Born 03 July 1850

                Born 14 July 1851

                Born 01 August 1852

                Born 03 November 1853

                Born 21 November 1854

                Born 05 March 1856

                Born 01 February 1858

                Born 19 May 1860


                Just as a side note ........... the child born in 1858 was still alive until July 1838, living in Liverpool where OH's father was able to meet her on a number of occasions.

                Less than half of the children married ........ maybe put off by having so many siblings?!
                My grandmother, on the beach, South Bay, Scarborough, undated photo (poss. 1929 or 1930)

                Researching Cadd, Schofield, Cottrell in Lancashire, Buckinghamshire; Taylor, Park in Westmorland; Hayhurst in Yorkshire, Westmorland, Lancashire; Hughes, Roberts in Wales.

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                • #9
                  wow - some amazing stories

                  think I only get to 11 or 12, but generally had a good survival rate.
                  Carolyn
                  Family Tree site

                  Researching: Luggs, Freeman - Cornwall; Dayman, Hobbs, Heard - Devon; Wilson, Miles - Northants; Brett, Everett, Clark, Allum - Herts/Essex
                  Also interested in Proctor, Woodruff

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                  • #10
                    This has now got me checking that family to check all the death dates, and probate! Some were incomplete.

                    I was supposed to be going for a nap, as I didn't go to sleep until 3 am last night/this morning!
                    My grandmother, on the beach, South Bay, Scarborough, undated photo (poss. 1929 or 1930)

                    Researching Cadd, Schofield, Cottrell in Lancashire, Buckinghamshire; Taylor, Park in Westmorland; Hayhurst in Yorkshire, Westmorland, Lancashire; Hughes, Roberts in Wales.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Jill on the A272 View Post
                      20 over 40 years but most online trees haven't killed off wife #1, wife #2 had the same first name and was 23 years his junior.

                      2x great grandmother married at 18 and had 14 babies by the time she was 40, the last 4 had very short lives and she followed them to the grave at 46.
                      Wow!

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                      • #12
                        21 children including at least 3 sets of twins. All to one couple - my 2nd great grandparents. They were Irish Catholics and the wife died aged 82. They outlived all but 7 of their children. I think there is a good genetic line as my grandmother from this line lived until she was 104 despite always supposedly having something wrong with her. Pat

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                        • #13
                          I have a set of 4th great grandparents that had 19 kids from 1807-1831.

                          their son, my 3rd great grandfather had 15 from 1843-1866.

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                          • #14
                            Some mighty big families there, I wouldn't want to feed some of those broods!

                            The best I can manage is a 16 via two wives on both sides of my family...............nowhere near some of the totals here, but one of the 16 had 15 survive into adulthood which is pretty good going.
                            My Family History Blog Site:

                            https://chiddicksfamilytree.com

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Elderflower View Post
                              21 children including at least 3 sets of twins. All to one couple - my 2nd great grandparents. They were Irish Catholics and the wife died aged 82. They outlived all but 7 of their children. I think there is a good genetic line as my grandmother from this line lived until she was 104 despite always supposedly having something wrong with her. Pat
                              Amazing age!

                              Comment


                              • #16
                                Originally posted by Paulc View Post
                                Some mighty big families there, I wouldn't want to feed some of those broods!

                                The best I can manage is a 16 via two wives on both sides of my family...............nowhere near some of the totals here, but one of the 16 had 15 survive into adulthood which is pretty good going.
                                I was surprised how many of them survived - only a couple died before adulthood on the largest brood!

                                Comment


                                • #17
                                  Of a more recent vintage than the examples above: my dad was one of 15, and my mum one of 10. My paternal grandma was one of 16. Several more examples of families of 10-18 children amongst my blood relations.

                                  I have someone who married into my family who was one of 21 according to various trees on ancestry, with her father being a Mormon who married 4 times. At one stage, he was married to 2 sisters concurrently. Wonder how they felt about that !

                                  My married-in woman was supposedly his daughter with wife no 1. However, with a bit of digging it turns out she was not their daughter at all but their illegitimate grand-daughter. So he only (!) had 20 children: 11 with wife 1, 5 with wife 2, and 4 with wife 3. He must have been flagging by the time he married wife 4 as they didn't have any children together. Mind you, she was a widow with 8 children when they married!

                                  On another front, Linda (Ozgirl) and I were compiling a tree for a third party. When we were divvying up who was researching which line, I had the misfortune to find an Anglican clergyman who had 22 children with his wife (just one set of twins.) After that, my heart sank every time I found another clergyman in that tree - and there were lots - as they were forever impregnating their poor unfortunate wives...

                                  Just out of interest, what's the record number of marriages in your tree? I think mine is 4.

                                  Christine
                                  Researching:
                                  HOEY (Fermanagh, other Ulster counties and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) BANNIGAN and FOX (Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland and Portland, Maine, USA) REYNOLDS, McSHEA, PATTERSON and GOAN (Corker and Creevy, Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland) DYER (Belfast and Ballymacarrett) SLEVIN and TIMONEY (Fermanagh) BARNETT (Ballagh, Tyrone and Strangford, Down)

                                  Comment


                                  • #18
                                    Originally posted by Karamazov View Post
                                    Of a more recent vintage than most of the examples above: my dad was one of 15, and my mum one of 10. My paternal grandma was one of 16. Several more examples of families of 10-18 children amongst my blood relations.

                                    I have someone who married into my family who was one of 21 according to various trees on ancestry, with her father being a Mormon who married 4 times. At one stage, he was married to 2 sisters concurrently. Wonder how they felt about that !
                                    My woman was supposedly his daughter with wife no 1. However, with a bit of digging it turns out she was not their daughter at all but their illegitimate grand-daughter. So he only (!) had 20 children: 11 with wife 1, 5 with wife 2, 4 with wife 3. He must have been flagging by the time he married wife 4 as they didn't have any children together. Mind you, she was a widow with 8 children when they married!
                                    On another front, Linda (Ozgirl) and I were compiling a tree for a relation of hers. When we were divvying up who was researching which line, I had the misfortune to find an Anglican clergyman who had 22 children with his wife (just one set of twins.) After that, my heart sank every time I found an Anglican clergyman in that tree - and there were lots - as they were forever impregnating their poor unfortunate wives...

                                    Just out of interest, what's the record number of marriages in your tree? I think mine is 4.

                                    Christine
                                    I'm kinda glad I have neither Mormon or Anglican clergymen in my tree

                                    On my tree (currently targeting just my Mum's side) I have 3 marriages but my ex-partner's sister is currently on marriage no.5 (she's not 50 yet!!)

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                                    • #19
                                      Not up to date with numbers of children to one family but I do know I worked out that One pair of my my 2x great grandparents had 65 grandchildren. I didn't even bother counting great grandchildren!
                                      Anne

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                                      • #20
                                        just been reading about this woman incredible


                                        https://rtd.rt.com/films/mother-of-3...iam-nabatanzi/

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