Size of Families

innjess · Post by **innjess** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 1:54 am

The size of families in days gone past is well known. However, while in the early stages of researching my paternal Scottish ancestors, I was startled to discover just how large these families could be! My G G G Grandparents (James Hutchison & Elizabeth Crawford) had 10 children. The 10th child (James Hutchison) had 16 children by one wife (Helen Tod), with another 3 by two other wives. Of these 16, the 15th was my Great Grandfather, who, in turn, had three wives. In spite of two World Wars, it's hardly surprising there has been such a population explosion in the last couple of hundred years or so!

Post by **Anne H** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 3:39 am

Hi Innjess,

Indeed there were large families.

I can't get into my database at the moment but I'm sure you beat me. From memory, I believe my largest families have thirteen children...and when those children have as many children and keep giving them the same names as previous generations, it make for a lot of confusion.

Regards,
Anne H

David Lang · Post by **David Lang** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:30 pm

Best I can do is Archibald Scally and his wife Flora McIlchere who had 15 children between 1877 and 1901.

They had an amazing 59 grand children at last count , and i have only researched about 5 of the lines fully and have 3 lines not touched yet

Post by **Tracey** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:52 pm

Then along came a saviour called Marie Stopes - who i just discovered was born in Edinburgh

David Lang · Post by **David Lang** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 3:24 pm

Well if anything it should make it cheaper to find relations in the future!!!!

JackyHSF · Post by **JackyHSF** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 3:46 pm

Hi

I have an ancestor affectionately dubbed 'William the Fertile' by his descendants (of whom there are many).

William Dyer was born around 1802, married at around 17 and started producing children with his first wife Janet Millar in 1820. The last of their 12 children was born in 1839. Poor, exhausted Janet died between 1851 and 1854 and William married again in 1854. His much younger second wife, Christina Gilchrist (her age is hard to pin down exactly - it's never the same on two documents together, but she was around 20 years younger than William) then gave birth to another 9 children - the last in 1872 when William was around 70. William lasted until his youngest son, Archibald, was 11 - Archibald was uncle to at least two nephews who were 26 years older than he was.

At least 13 of William's children produced numerous offspring - usually families of six to nine children, but none of them anywhere near matching their father's grand total. Haven't managed to count the grandchildren yet (another keeps popping up just when I think I've got no more to find).

I'm sure this isn't 'a record', but 21 children seems like rather a lot to me - just imagine the noise and the queues even if there was one leaving home just as another was born!

Jacky

blueladybird · Post by **blueladybird** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:49 pm

Just think how much they would have had, if they had family allowance then!

Post by **HeatherH** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:12 am

I grew up in Newfoundland a mainly catholic province in Canada where they took the message of "Go forth and multiply" to heart. The average family had a dozen kids. One of my neighbors only had 9 and was considered a poor wife as she had only had 7 pregnancies. 2 Sets of twins. But the biggest I have come across in what would be considered modern times is that of my 2 brothers in laws who are married to 2 of my sisters. They have 21 living brothers and sisters from the same parents making a total of 23 children. ( 6 died either at birth or in infancy or there would have been 29.) Their parents also raised 5 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. They had to rent the church hall for a sit down family dinner for their parents 60th wedding anniversary. They needed seating for 300 people by the time all the children and their spouces and children and many grandchildren and their spouces and children filled the hall. I asked my sisters how they managed christmas and was told they would draw names. Can you imagine Santa's sack fitting down that Lum?
HeatherH

Post by **joette** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 1:19 pm

Whilst living in Utah I knew a widow & widower who married.She had twelve children & he had eleven.They went on to have another three together.
At first all were at home! Can you imagine the queques for the bathroom.
They lived on a very modest income & I think there was only two bathrooms in the house.Happy people though.

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 2:33 pm

Heres a story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up twelve very lovely girls. All of them had hair of gold like their mother, the youngest one in curls.

Heres a story, of a man named Brady. Who was busy with eleven boys of his own. They were twelve men living all together, yet they were all alone.

Till the one day when this lady met this fellow, and they knew that it was much more than a hunch, that this group must some how form a family. That’s the way we all became the Brady bunch.....the Brady bunch….the Brady bunch....that’s the way we become the Brady bunch.

But that wasn’t quite enough for us Brady’s. We didn’t know quite when to call it quits. We had three more in quick succession to make it twenty-six.

We’re lucky they didn’t make a TV series about that family. Can you imagine the TV screen divided into 29 little boxes each containing a face looking around at all the others?

Alan

TalkingScot.com

Size of Families

Size of Families

Family Size