Genealogy Chat

I have one family who had 14 children, she had the first in 1821 and the last one in 1846 and only one died!! I know times were tough back then how on earth did they manage to feed them all? Mind you he was a fisherman, so perhaps that is all they ate! Fuzzy x

I don't have to go back far at all. My Father is one of 16.

i have one who had 14 kids

My grandfather was one of 17 children, although 15 survived to adulthood. He was a triplet, the other two dying within a few months of each other. His mother had one more child after him and died 10 years later. Susan

omg 17 kids

What a dreadful thought! lol My granny had 12 to bring up.....she lost another two......she also ran a shop full time and did the bookkeeping in her ''spare time''. I am worn out, just thinking about it! Merry

My grandad is one of 14 children. 12 seems to be the average number of children per family in my tree, and they're quite alot of them too.

My mother was the oldest of nine children - not an amazing lot, I know, but she always said with great bitterness that her mother didnt bring 8 children up, SHE did. As the only girl she was frequently kept home from school to attend to the household while her mother went out scrubbing for a few pennies. Food consisted of what they could beg, steal or borrow.They lived yards from a beach and a regular chore was picking winkles to make a meal with. Her six year old brother worked as a lad on a veg stall and used to bring home the rubbish on a saturday night. That made soup for the week. Clothes ditto - my mother once went to school aged about 9, in the depths of a scottish winter, in a blue organza evening dress, which had had the hem torn off to fit. Huge families also mean lots of pairs of hands - doing a weeks wash for 14 children wouldnt be so bad if you had five daughters of an age to do it. All the boys would be out earning a penny here and there, or working on the veggie plot. They didnt have a childhood as our children do - as soon as they could stand, they were given something useful to do - and did it. OC

Another thing! Not all of these large families were at home at the same time.....my granny's family was born 1906 - 1932 and the eldest left home in 1922. Merry

my dad is one of 13- only 4 left now Kath

Hubby's 3g-grandfather had 11 children by his first wife and a further 6 by his second. Liz

My Grt Grt Grandmother in Ireland is rumoured to have had 20 including twins! Not all survived......so I'm told .....which is just as well as I'm having enough trouble finding out anything about my Gt Grandparents. But can you imagine giving birth so many times!!!!!!!! Oooooooooh the after pains must have been horrendous! You women know what Im talking about. Men have it sooooooooo easy! Oh dear I've digressed from genealogy..Sorry.

Have just read all your replies, OC I am going to make my kids read your reply and perhaps they will realise how lucky they are!! Fuzzy x

I've one family with 13 surviving children. But the children would be off to work or in service at the age of 12/13 or so, so they wouldn't all be living at home at the same time. I've many examples of older children who are married with kids of their own, whilst their mother is still producing children. nell

My gt gt grandmother was reputed to have had 19 children including 3 sets of twins, but I think somebody mis-heard 9 or 10 as 19 as we can find only 9/10 births/bapt. And only one set of twins. I have looked at the years and there are not enough gaps in which she might have had another 10 even if there were 2 sets of twins, unless there were quite a few miscarriages and she fell pregnant again almost immediately. When mother died the father remarried and his 2nd wife had 3 children.

HI there This is Rob's wife.......and I'm thinking...... CONTRACEPTION..........WHAT A WONDERFUL THING :O)

My Paternal Gt. Grandfather had 14 children, though I can only currently prove the existance of 11 of them. I think one possible girl has been duplicated as I can't find 'Topsy' in the birth indexes yet, so she might have been born under another name - I don't know what though. That still gives me 13, though two died young before their first birthdays. My maternal Gt. Grandmother had about twelve children as well I think by two husbands. I think broods of 10 or more were quite common back then, especially with no such thing as birth control or contraception. I've also got a 3xGt grandfather who had at least 8 children by his first wife and still managed to father another 5 children by his second wife, the last of which when he was 70 the randy old devil!!

There is quite a few documents in existence stating that my great grandparents had 21 children!!! I am not kidding....applications for charity help, doctors records, etc all say 21. The trouble is that I have only been able to find records for 14 of them. I wonder what happened to the others? I might add, that my ggrandfather died in a mental hospital. I am not surprised. Even the admission slip filled in by his grandson stated:- Sons: There are 21 children but I do not know their names or addresses. I guess that he knew who they were. Lyn

21 children over 42 years by the same father-2 wives-he outlived them both......he was born in 1865 and his 21st child lives up the road.

my g.gran had 15, 12 lived, she lost triplets. she must of constantley been giving birth!! she told one her daughters that every time her husband hung his trousers on the bedstead she'd be off again!!!!!!