Question of the Week: What's the largest family you've found in your tree? [closed]

Question

What is the largest family you've found in your tree?

Tell us about them with an answer below! You could also use the question image to share your answer with friends and family on social media.

Comments

Joseph Smith, he is connected to my husband

Answer 1

General Joseph Martin of Virginia [Joseph Martin (abt.1740-1808) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree], was the brother of my ancestor John Martin.  He was the father of 21 (or 22) children by  four (possibly five) different women.  He was a white man who had two white wives, but was also an agent to the Cherokee Nation where he fathered two documented Cherokee children by two different Cherokee women (and possibly a third whose father may have been his brother John).  One of his Cherokee "wives" was Betsy Ward, the daughter of the famous Cherokee Nancy Ward [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cherokee-59].  

In closer generations I think my grandmother Florence Youngblood Parks, who was one of thirteen children is the winner.  [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Youngblood-694] 

Comments

Howdy cousin! I am descended from Joseph's sister-in-law, Rachel Dalton who was married to William P. Martin.

Answer 2

The largest family by far is the family of my Great-Grandparents William A. Stewart & Myrtle B. (Lownds) Stewart. They had at least 16 children that are known via census records and DNA Matches. Many of the earlier children were given up for adoption, and it is unknown how many there exactly were. But all that is known is that they all came from my Great-Grandparents. The same 2 people. 2 people that have been a mystery for me are Ellwood and Eleanor Stewart who both appear in the 1920 census, and I can't find any further record. So they were most likely adopted by another family. In the mid-to-late 1920s. The family seems to be more stable, and they were able to support their very large family. Including my Grandmother, Patricia J. Stewart.

Answer 3

The largest family that I have found with all of their children living fairly long lives is that of my great grandparents Riza and Seth Marvin II. Seth originally married Riza's mother Diantha Ford, a widow, ten years older than he was with four children; also she was my great great grandmother. Diantha and Seth had five more children. Diantha died when the fifth child was a baby, so Seth married Riza, Diantha's oldest child who was 20 years old when she married Seth. Seth and Riza had 11 more children. This is a photo of Riza and Seth who was the biological father of 16 children, and dear Riza who was the caretaker of all of  their 11 children and her 8 younger siblings.

Comments

Sweet Alexis thank you for sharing this wonderful photo of your great grandparents they both look amazing

They certainly grow a big family, thank you for sharing this story

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Thank you Susan for very nice comment; I really treasure this photo. The original of this photo belonged to my first cousin, Carolyn Marvin, who died is year ago. Her only child also died six months later, so all I know is there is a box in a garage in Nevada that the original might be in.

Answer 4

I looked through my family tree and many families have 10, 11 or 12 children a few even 13 or 14.

But two families stand out in particular:

1. Johann Haberstreith (1614-1676) and his wife Annastasia Reinhardt (1619-1705) from Schmalkalden (today a town in Thuringia) had 15 children between 1638 and 1665; at least eight of them died young (between a few days and 9 years old). Johann Haberstreith was town musician.

2. Johann Gottfried Jesse (1761-1848), a cottager of Plänitz (now a district of Neustadt an der Dosse in Brandenburg) had 18 known children, but by two wives.
With his first wife (+1796), he had 4 previously known children between 1784 and 1792. With his second wife, Anna Catharina Elisabeth Elend (1776-1848), he had 14 children between 1796 and 1819; including twins twice.

Answer 5

My Great Grandparents https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brown-47047|William Edward Brown and Hunt-9569 were the parents of 17 children. Three of them were either stillborn or died as infants. The rest lived to at least 7 years old.

This is a photo of Elizabeth with 6 of her sons c1920.

https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Luther_Stuff-2#

Comments

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Luther, thank you for sharing the photo of your great grandmother Elizabeth and her six sons. She had to have been a really strong women to have given birth to 17 children. Tragic that life was so hard here in Oklahoma back then, and she lost several of her children.

Answer 6

One of the largest families I've found is that of James William Wilkes. He had 14 live born children but only two (Ellen and Alice) lived past the age of 10. It must have been very sad for him and his wife and I will attempt to find more of his children to add to WikiTree.

(Also, I apologise for the barebones profiles - I only added him today for the Connect-a-Thon)

Comments

Similarly my g g grandparents had 10 children but only 3 lived longer than 7 years, and only 2 of them outlived my g g grandparents. Fortunately this happens less often nowadays.

Good for you participating in the connect a thon.

Answer 7

Duff-1055 married first Anna innes -16. and had. 23 Children and married second  Mary Urquhart -18 by whom heher whom. He had a further 13 children

Answer 8

I would have to say that would be my 4th great-grandfather https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wolfe-5722 He married twice and was the father of 14 children.

Answer 9

My great-grandfather Russell Sanders was one of 13 children. His father Thomas was one of 16, and his father Robert was the oldest of 17.

Answer 10

Hugh Elisha Anderson had six wives and some incredible number of children, I think it was 27 counting several stepsons that he raised.

Answer 11

My wife’s ancestor, Juan de Santiago (the family name was changed to Santiago de Escobar, and ultimately to Escobar) in his death record in the Asunción de Maria church records in Aguascalientes, Mexico, was said to be almost 100 years old (his baptismal record exists, and though was quite old for the time, not quite 100), and to have had 45 children from three wives.

I have found documentation for all of the wives, including a dispensation as two were related, and what I relieve to be his signature.

I can account for 25 of the children. I suspect there were a number of stillbirths, these would not be in the baptismal or burial records, as stillborn children cannot be baptized and would not be buried in hallowed ground (the church cemetery).

The family as a whole is reasonably well documented in the Mexican church and civil records and branches are in Mexico, various states in the US, Spain, and Canada.

Answer 12

My grandfather was one of 20 children, but sadly only 11 of them survived to adulthood. They did make it into the local newspaper though! Here is a link to a few pics: my smugmug account There was just the two parents though. The origins of my great grandfather JD are shrouded in mist. His parents are unproven, and I will have to get help before I connect them to the big tree. But his parents got together in 1860, his father went off to war and although he appeared to muster out, he never came home. His mother may have re-married, I can't find her after, and reportedly he was not happy with the situation and left home at or before the age of 10, and somehow raised himself up, to have a large happy family that was everything he never had. But with influenza and accidents, "happy-ever-after was not the life they got, but they tended to be happy, more often than not!" (Quoting the "Ballad of Erica Levine" by Bob Blue.)

Answer 13

The largest family I have found so far in my family tree is the Shattuck family.  I've tried counting how many of them there are but it is almost impossible. Starting with William Shattuck, Sr. (Shattuck-543) having eleven children, 53 grandchildren, and 245 great-grandchildren all before the year 1700.

Answer 14

In my own tree, the largest I have found was my 3rd great grandmother and her siblings. My 4th great grandparents, Eliza and John Dermody from Kilkenny, Ireland, had a total of 10 children, all of whom lived. 5 girls and 5 boys over a span of 16 years. My 3rd great grandmother left for America when she was barely 18. Being the oldest girl, I am sure leaving was both a hardship and a relief from caring for 8 younger siblings.

Answer 15

My wife's father had 16 siblings, 15 of them survived to adulthood. 13 of them married and had children. When I married my wife, I became the 100th member of the family from her paternal grandparents down.

Answer 16

It is a bit difficult to get exact details on someone almost 400 years ago, but from what records that are around, Robert Molesworth-131(pictured here) and his wife Letitia, had from 17 to 21 children between them (possibly even a couple more). Only 8 - 10 survived beyond infancy. And this isn't mentioning the at least 1 illegitimate children he had.

I've come across quite a number of families in my tree with around 15 children, which doesn't seem to be uncommon.

Come to think of it. A guy at a former work place, used to ask when we are going to stop. We have eleven surviving children. He could talk though, he has 21 surviving children, to 6 different women.

Incidently, Robert and Letitia are ancestors to Princess Diana, Sophie Rhys Jones, Olivia de Havilland & Joan Fontaine, C.S. Lewis, Australian explorer John Oxley, and other people who have become somewhat notable.

Answer 17

Henry Coates Chapman, (Chapman-2114), Amherst Head, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada; born 1823, died 1899.  He married 1st to Sarah Lowther and had 13 children.  After her death, he married her sister, Emeline and they had 12 children, for a total of 25 children.  At the time of his death, only two had predeceased him.  He was survived by 23 children, and at that time had 59 grandchildren, of which 46 was living.

Answer 18

My biological paternal third great grandfather William Henry Harrison  Sagers https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sagers-10  had 9 wives and 34 children that I have found. Not all of them are on Wikitree so I have some adding to do. A tenth wife and 4 children are questionable so I have to do more research on them. My great grandmother, Nellie Sagers and great grandfather, Grant Allen had 13 children and most of the kids have a handful. 

Answer 19

The family of Paolo Coppola takes the title of largest family. He had over 17 kids between two wives. Granted some of the kids did not survive to adulthood. It still counts. The funny thing is that both Mary Rose Coppolas were half-sisters and knew about each other as they lived in the same house. One was named Mary and the other was named Rose. 

Pretty big family!

Answer 20

The largest family I found in my tree is the family of Jackson & Mary Ann (Shipman) SNYDER. She had 14 children between 1866 - 1890 all born in Lower Augusta Twp, Northumberland Co, PA. I am lucky enough to have found a Family Reunion photo of their descendants which I copied from a  2nd cousin. I am trying to connect all the Snyder families from this area of PA.

Comments

My ancestor Jean Poidras-26 fathered 18 children with Marie Xainte Vié-13, 9 of them did not reach 10 years old. Marie Xainte died 3 months after the birth of her last child who died 2 months later.

Four years later, ancestor Jean remarried to Marie Anne de la Voye; they had 10 children and 4 of them did not reach age 5. Marie Anne died 3 months after the birth of her last child who also died 4 months later.

Jean Poidras fathered 28 children.

It seems evident that both mothers did not survive their last child.