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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: kerryb on Saturday 10 June 06 08:33 BST (UK)
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Looking at my family tree this morning, I noticed I seem to have a lot of sets of twins. My mum was a twin and I know there was always a family myth that they occured every other generation which sadly, I can just about dispel now.
It got me thinking, though are twins rare or common in families?
Kerry
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I know of 5 definite sets of twins - including me and my sister :)
It definitely doesn't skip a generation though...these are fairly widely spread across various branches of the family. I can't see any pattern in it, except that they are all on my dad's side.
Prue
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I haven't found any on my wheeldon side but nearly every generation on my Wilshaw's has a set of twins.
Also, my Dad's a twin and his sister has twins.
It makes me a little scared of getting pregnant again ::)
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I've found twins on both sides of my family and there seem quite a lot.
If the family myth was ever true as neither my sister or my cousin had twins, it might have been me! Circumstances however meant I didn't have children but I sometimes wonder!!!!!
Kerry
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My mum is a twin and so is my hubbys mum ( both non-identical ). Happily I did not produce twins, 14 months apart was hard enough! I was told it skips generations too but have yet to find evidence of this in my tree. Plenty of twins born on both sides but no apparent pattern.
Christine
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There is an interesting bit of info at "Twins Realm": http://www.twinsrealm.com/twinsfaq.htm#family
Apparently it's the fraternals, not the identicals, that can run in families - and it's through the mother's family not the father's. So all my dad's family history of twins, if a genetic trait, must have run through a female line...hmmmmm....will have to do some research!
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Prue
What an interesting site!
My mum and her sister were so identical, even we had trouble telling them apart and as for their voices, if you shut your eyes you really did know which one was talking.
When my mum looks at old photos of the two of them together, the only way she can tell which one she was, is by the mole she has on her neck. Of course if she was wearing a high collar there was no hope!!!!
Kerry
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Hi Kerry :)
Wow, that's pretty amazing...I have known a few sets of identical twins but always there's been quite a distinct difference between them (at least once you had known them for a little while).
It's a bit of a letdown for non-twins to learn you're a fraternal. Usually, the first question I get asked when I reveal that I'm a twin is "are you identical??". When I say no, the person almost always is visibly disappointed! ;D I went to Uni with a girl who had a twin brother. She would tell people she had a twin brother, and more often than not, the people would respond with "so, are you identical??" ;D ;D ;D She figured it wasn't worth trying to explain!
Prue
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Kerry,
I know on my fathers side alone there are at least nine sets of twins. I have also heard they skip a generation god help my kids lol.
Regards Billa
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I wish I could go back in time and check out some of the other sets of twins in the family.
Kerry
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My Edmonds tree goes back to 1713, and that includes following all branches downwards as far as possible, and to the best of my memory there are NO sets of twins in it at all (until you get down to my cousins children, but my cousin married a twin). Quite unusual i should think.
When I had my children and was asked at the hospital if there were twins in the family I confidently said 'no' !
However, since working on my husband's DeBoo tree, I find lots of sets of twins! 2 of his grandfather's brothers were twins, though his dad never knew that till we found the births. Then several in the previous generation.
Just thankful I didnt know this when I was pregnant!
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I have been very surprised by the number of twins in the family and I also said confidently that there were none in the family when I had my 3 children.
There were several sets of twins in one of my lines in the 19th century but as far as I know nothing in the more recent generations. I guess with families of around 13 and in one case 17, there are bound to be more sets occuring.
Linda.
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I've got one family in my tree who had 17 children, most of them died young unfortunately but poor woman had two sets of twins. :o :o :o :o :o :o
Kerry
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I have twins on both sides of the family... in one family there were two sets. My dad had a twin sister and his mothers' brothers were twins but luckily it seems to have skipped my generation :)
Elaine
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Apparently the probability of having twins - genetic disposition or not - increases when the mother is over the age of 35. Considering that many of our foremothers, if they survived all the births, continued having children well into their forties, maybe it's not so much of a surprise to find twins?
Prue
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My mother had twin cousins - boys. Her sister had twins -girls and one of those girls has twin boys. On to that generation producing babies now so we shall see what happens. ::) ::)
Attached photo - the twins are the babies Peter & Paul.
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I have indeed noticed that the twins in my family do tend to be the later births rather than the earlier ones. Good point Prue.
Linda.
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Prue - I wonder if you are to something there, I shall have to go back and check the ages of the mothers in my tree!
Emmeline - sweet!!! :)
Kerry
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Only one set of twins in my great gran's side of the family. Twin girls born in 1910 - one died as an infant, the other lived to a good old age.
Also I had twin male cousins on my fathers side. Both instances seem to be "one-offs", probably the trait came from the family my relations married into, rather the on my direct family line.
Jan
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hi while researching my great great grands from thurles irealnd idiscovered that they had three sets of twins in a row in less than 2 years apart from each other one being my great grandmohter her twin was a boy there were two sets of boy and girl and one set of 2 boys then my grandmohter also had a set of twin boys and i have a set of identical twin girls the kirwans had 12 children in all
rose
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Rose
That must be some sort of record!!
I just found another set this week in my family in the 1800s.
Kerry
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Looking through my tree I have counted 19 sets of twins,my greatgrandmother's family also had three sets of twins and each set was one boy and one girl. I've also got two families that have two sets of twins, and although not a twin myself my eldest daughter had twin boys so it seems more than likely that the tradition will carry on for some time yet.
jericho
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My brothers are non-identical same sex twins which I understand is fairly unusual. My mum's grandmother had two or three sets of twins and on my dad's side there are twins going back to the 17th century.
So you can imagine, the thought of pregnancy fills me with terror! ;D ;D ;D
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Mrs Lizzy
Oh I understand!!!!
I found another 2 sets this week, twins everywhere on my tree, it's crazy!!!
Kerry
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I've found 3 sets of twins in my family.
The most recent were my sisters kids. When she was pregnant with her first child, she was asked by the doctor if there were twins in the family and she asked me. I told her NO there are not. ::)
Fortunately her first child was a singleton. The second pregnancy she had twin daughters. They are now aged 15. :)
After my neices were born I did some more digging and discovered that our grandmother had twin boys (my fathers older brothers) but one of the twins had died very young.
Since doing my family genealogy, I have discovered a third set of twins in my gt gt grandfather and his brother.
BD
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I've found a few sets of twins on both mine and my husband's side. No wonder we spent a whole night worrying what we would do when the midwife on her first examination convinced herself I had two babies and sent me for a scan the next day - it was only my large son in there!
I have found on my side a 4xgreat grandmother who had twin girls on 11/7/1782 and after a few others triplets on 23/12/1797, must be something in the water in Scotland!
Gill
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I heard a horrendous story about a friend of a friend about 20 odd years ago when scans were not as good as they are now.
She had a scan and told her she had a baby that sadly had three arms. Of course an operation would solve the problem.
She went through the pregnancy and the baby did well, when she gave birth it was twins. The second baby had been behind the first baby with it's arm up.
And before you ask yes we asked why they had not heard 2 heartbeats and they couldn't answer that one either!!!
Kerry
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That story brings back memories Kerry! My twins were born in 1973 - before scans - and I vividly recall being examined by a trainee midwife who said "that's an arm, that's a leg, there's another arm, and another, and that's a leg....."! I stopped her and asked her to get a qualified midwife to examine me, which she did - silently! She then went to fetch Sister, who prodded and poked in silence and then wrote 'multiple birth' on my card! Nothing was said to me and when I queried it I was told I would have to wait another six weeks (the due date) to find out! The next day I went to see my own doctor and told him what had happened. He was amazed that I hadn't guessed that I was expecting twins but obviously didn't think it necessary to tell me!!!
When I told my mother I was expecting twins she was not at all surprised. She said "well you are in line for them, your great-grandmother had 2 sets"!
Strange...nobody thought I should be informed!
Jill
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Well you weren't important, you were only the mother!!!
Thank goodness they don't always have that attitude nowadays!
Kerry
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My mother was very large at around the same time as you had your examination, Jill - she was pregnant with my sister and I, and being 1970 as you knwo there were no scans...she was so big that her doctor ordered an XRay. Ta-daaaa! TWINS!
She and dad had to quickly go out and buy an extra one of everything!
Prue
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Hi Prue
Large...I didn't see my feet for 5 months and the doctor (the one who thought I should have guessed I was having twins) kept telling me it was a big baby! We even had to buy a bigger car to accommodate the twin pram and the last thing I felt like doing was shopping - for anything!
Jill
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My twins are all in my mothers side of the family. There are at least two families where there were two sets of twins (not all survived long), but many more in other families. Without checking, I could probably find a dozen sets in about 5 generations of this family and there are several lines of descendants that I know nothing about, so there are probably more there. As for twins skipping a generation, it doesn't seem the case with mine - they are in every generation.
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Hi there:
There are twins all over in my family tree and also in my husbands. He has two sets of twin sisters. My grandmother had twins but one died at birth, my grandfather was a twin. It seems not matter what line I am researching up pops twins!!
In fact my daughter is expecting her first baby in Oct and the dr asked if there was twins in her family, she just started to laugh because when she was in school she had to do a family tree showing something that was there for more than one generation and guess what she did her;s on?? twins!!
So the dr. sent her right away for a scan but only one baby seen. But her dad keeps telling her that the other one is hidding... I think he would twins. now my son in law is worried that the next time it will be twins.
Cheers
Anne
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while researching my mothers side of the family i found out her mothers father was a twin but his twin sister died young. then i remembered a "story" from my grandmother that she had a miscarriage and lost twin boys. my mother had 9 children and no twins...out of my siblings over 30 children and I am the only one who had twins...boys.
I have twins on my fathers side one lot of twins (great grandmother) born on my birthday ( or is it more correct to say i was born on her birthday)
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My great great grandparents William and Elizabeth had twin boys William and Samuel in 1830 who sadly died. In 1832 another set of twin boys were born named William and Samuel also. At first I thought I must have got dates mixed up, but on double checking, and finding the burial of the first set, another family researcher came up with the same conclusion, that yes, there were two sets of twins born within the two years.
Su
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My brothers are non-identical same sex twins which I understand is fairly unusual. My mum's grandmother had two or three sets of twins and on my dad's side there are twins going back to the 17th century.
So you can imagine, the thought of pregnancy fills me with terror! ;D ;D ;D
But not as much as it fills the boyfriend with terror!! ;D ;D ;D
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My twins are also officially non-identical same sex but you would struggle to tell which is which if you didn't know them. When they were younger their personalities were also more or less identical and we went through all the oddities which are normally attributed to identical twins, such as one having an accident and the other feeling the pain, but now, at the age of 32 they are very different individuals although they still look alike!
Jill
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I've a couple of sets of twins in my tree and I've found some in my husband's tree too. My husband has a rellie who had triplets called Faith , Hope and Charity but sadly one died. Given the time they lived in I think it's a miracle two survived.
FeeJay :)
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Hi
All the twins in our family have been on my father's side and all identical - he had twin aunts, twin cousins then had twin daughters himself (my older sisters). They got away with three children each and no twins.
Guess who got the twins!? Yes - me! Second pregnancy and there they were - and absolutely not identical, so all co-incidence! ::)
Tracy
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My brothers aren't even similar. They don't look like brothers, let alone twins!
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Hi to all
My reply is totally coming from memory, (too tired and too late to consult my notes), but I love the subject. My brother and sister are twins, my father's paternal grandmother was a twin, his maternal g/mother on one side had a set of twins and a set of triplets. His maternal ggg/grandmother on another side had twins and there other twins in the extended family tree. I plan one day to document all the multiple births, I find it a very interesting subject but at this stage am having a difficult time getting my head around them all.
Sue
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Hi Sue
I'm going to go through my tree, (when I get time) and write down exactly who had what in terms of twins. I know most of them in my head but I want to get it on paper, I find it fascinating and I just wish I could find out whether they were all identical or not!!
Kerry
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I have one set in my tree and a few in my husbands,
their names? Adam and Eve ;D ;D would you believe it!!
Kerry I'm following you around this morning, your on every post I go to ;)
Janet
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Or am I following you!!! ;D :o
Twins don't seem to be as rare as I first thought they were. In fact they seem very common, or is it that we all have them but until we do our family tree we just don't know about them?
Kerry
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My cousin has twin daughters and my Grandad had three sets of twin sisters :o :o :o.
I had my children when I was 33, 35, 41 and one on the way at 43 - but no sign of any twins!
sheddyg
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We have twins on both sides. Mine go back about 50 years, but my Husbands Uncle had twins.
I was 5 months pregnant before I had a scan to reveal...yes....twins. Both girls, now 25, fraternal, but, people still can't tell the difference...lol even though one has shoulder length hair and the other down to her bottom!!!!
Best wishes.....Iris :)
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Interestingly enough I have found stacks of sets of twins in my own family tree.
I have recently started working on my partner's family tree and so far no twins at all.
Hmmmm
Kerry
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We have many twins in our line, and now that I have done a fair bit of research I can see which line it runs from. I am one myself, and love it.
It was the freckle on my nose that gave me away. ;D
But the best one is three generations of twins.
One twin had twins, and one of them had twins. Don't know if that is a record. Has anyone else found this in there lines?
Go the twinnies ;)
Margaret
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That sounds quite unusual and I suppose it must have been a recessive gene or something
Kerry
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We have three sets of identical twins going right now. My brothers are identical, one of them has identical girls and a cousin has identical girls. My mom was on pregnancy number 3, with 11 months between each baby. The doctor heard a faint heartbeat and told her, "Oh, you are finally getting your girl." She went to the hospital for an emergency c-section. My father was told both mother and baby were in danger, and out came 2 healthy boys instead of the one sickly girl they expected, both about 6 pounds. Mind you, my mom is not quite 5 feet tall.
The rumor is my gg grandmother had twins. We always thought she died in childbirth with the babies, but after getting her death cert, it appears she died a couple days after birth from an infection. We don't know what happened to the babies (no records at their church at all), but my mother and a great-aunt always said they had heard they were fraternal. I think the only way non-medical people would know that back then would have been a boy and a girl. Oh, where are those babies.
I just started working on my Murphy branch and there are a lot with the same birth year. I haven't determined yet if they were twins or "Irish twins." I'll keep all posted when I hear anything.
Kathleen
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We get a lot of twins of my materal grandmother's side of the family. Not many elsewhere though...although recently I came across in my research on my Mum's side a set of quads. That, I must admit, was the last thing I was expecting to find.
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7 so far and still counting. It is funny this comes up because I did count when I was pregnant. Scary as when I was pregnant this past year the doctor kept asking me if there were twins in the family as I was huge. I could only say yes but it was my great X's 3 grandmother who was the closest. Does that count? ;)
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Twins. My mother had four sets of twins.Boy and girl each time.We are all still surviving.Two of the sets share the same birthdate two years apart.
My database (4900) entries based on four associated family names has thrown up 73 twins.5 sets of triplets and
2 sets of quads. The DB originates from
the seventeen eighties.
I have not verified each and every one and they are recorded by like dates. But I can vouch for my own family line.
Keep up the good work folks.
You never know what you will find
John.
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apparently 1 in 8 pregnancies are twins so it would not be unusual therefore to find twins when the parents had 8 + children as they often did in the 19th century.
my uncle (married in to the family) is a twin and so are his sisters,, one of his sisters has twin children.
actually on my direct lines i only have 3 or is it 4 sets of twins.
i wonder if this is the same for red/ ginger hair? my uncles has ginger hair as does my cousin and his half sister, two of my great uncles and their mother also.
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There are so many sets of twins on my father's side that I've never bothered to count but funny enough I don't know of any on my mother's side.
My father's aunt had two sets- first twin boys who died at birth, 6 children & then twins (boy and girl). Thirty years ago a cousin's wife was expecting and was so large we started listing all the twins in the family that we could think of. She didn't look overly concerned and when we finished she told us her grandmother had 12 children- six sets of twins! (cousin's wife soon after gave birth to one daughter).
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Hi
I'm a twin, i have a twin brother. there are i think 7 sets of twins in the family, have yet to do dads side of the family.
William James
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Among the 11,404 people in my family tree, there are 13 sets of twins - so 26 twins altogether. Of course they may be more whom I don't know about due to stillbirth/early mortality etc, but nevertheless this seems to be an extremely low rate of twinning. Online statistics suggest the modern rate of twinning (in the US at least) averages 12 per 1000 which is 1 in every 83 births. At that rate one would expect to see 142 twins in my tree. I guess whatever the twinning gene is, we don't have it :D
Anna
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Only two sets as far as i know, myself and brother and my older sisters, no sign yet of any others though i haven't realy got that far back or traveled down that many branches yet!
I only found out a few years ago from my mother that my brother and i should have been triplets but unfortunately our other brother was very premature and didn't survive! :(
Tony
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I am a twin but sadly my twin brother passed away three years ago. When we were younger both my parents said that there were no twins on either side of the family but when I started looking into my father's side of the tree I found that his father was from a second marriage and that there were twins on the great grandfather's side so it seems to have come down the paternal side! but also there are twins on my paternal grandmother's side as well! I haven't got very far on my mum's side but I will carry on looking.
Reading through what has been said I can relate to the girl who was asked whether she and her brother were identical or not as I have been through the same thing, which was funny as my brother was a foot taller than me! Mind you I have to say that we felt each other's pain which was good when I had my two sons as Tim had the pain and I didn't!!!
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Father's side: twins although 1 died at birth and the other - surviving - was fed with an ink pen filler!! My sister had twins weighing 7lbs15oz and 8lbs1oz and they were 3 weeks early! But records for surviving twin 1890 did NOT show time of birth although I expected it to...............queries over times of birth on certs documented on another thread.
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I have one set in recent times - my younger sisters are non identical twins. In fact they don't even look like sisters - one favours my mum, the other dad and they have totally different personalities!My mum was 38 when she had them. I have also found a set in my maternal gggrandfathers family.
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Having been convinced by my father that twins were due in my generation, but none of my siblings having had any, I read up a bit on the likelihood of me having them. I seem to remember being relieved to discover that twins are more likely the more pregnancies you have.
My maternal grandmother had twin boys (identical) at her 8th pregnancy (she would have been 35) and my paternal great grandmother had twin boys also at her 8th pregnancy (she would have been 38).
So I suppose the later mother's age would also explain it.......
Sally
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hmmm 2 sets in the same family. G G Grandma Mary KENNEDY nee MCCOOK of Armoy, Antrim, Ireland had born:
son 1874 (day before sailing to NZ)
son 1875
dau 1877
TWINS sons x 2 1884
son 1886
TWINS son & dau 1888
I envy her NOTTTT *grin*
Cheers
Sarndra
www.sarndra.com
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Out of nearly 3,000 I have just one possible! :'(
Happily, this pair arrived and survived while the last three had died within a year of birth. :)
I haven't even started on my wife's side but my stepdaughter had twins. My wife tell me there are 'loads' on her side. 8)
Paul
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I have one set in recent times - my younger sisters are non identical twins. In fact they don't even look like sisters - one favours my mum, the other dad and they have totally different personalities!My mum was 38 when she had them. I have also found a set in my maternal gggrandfathers family.
My brothers are non identical twins - they too don't even look like brothers. My OH says if you didn't know you wouldn't think they were even from the same family. The older twin looks like our Dad - tall, broad and muscular - while the younger one looks like our Dad's Dad - tall, thin and lanky.
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Evening,
On my Dad's side, my Great Grandmother had 13 children who survived into adulthood, out of an alleged 20 babies!!! :o
It's said there were three sets of twins in there, one set who survived.
Her husband's dad (My great, great gandfather), was himself a twin.
On my mum's side, my grandad was a twin too! ;D
Won't be suprised if I find more. Not been any twins since though......Gulp ;D
Paul
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hi from rose again
well it has happened agin in my family if you remeber my previous post my kirwans from thurles had the 3 sets of twins in a row one being my great grannie who also had twins i had a set of identical twin girls and now i have just been informed that my twin daughter is having twins and the saga continues lol
rose
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I've only ever found one set of twins in all the many lines I've traced - so I don't know if this is some kind of record for lack of twins in my tree!
They were born back in 1841 and were called Mary and Joseph - bless!!!!
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Twins in both sides of my immediate family.
boy girl twins (husbands grandmothers)
boy girl twins times 3 and boy twins times 1 out of 20 children - my grandmother.
I escaped it thank goodness.
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3 sets of twins on my side
1778 - my 5xG grandmother (and her brother) [paternal great grandfather's mother's side]
1810 - my 5XG aunt & uncle [paternal great grandfather's father's side]
1841 - my 3xG grandfather (and his brother) [maternal grandfather's side]
2 sets on OH's side
1713 - OH's 7xG aunt & uncle
1951 - OH's uncles
Although on my direct paternal line I was the first girl born after 3 generations of sons only =)
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1 set of twins my grandmothers half brothers so far anyway. However I have 3 boys, and looking at baby photos of the youngest two sometimes it is hard to work out who it was.
Regards
Sarah
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Just realised I've goofed up, answering the poll: - my younger brothers were identical twins, from Mum's second pregnancy at age 28, ... Mum's aunt in Scotland reportedly had either three or four sets of twins (not all survived, though) ... my mother-in-law was an identical twin - although her twin died at age 5. The further back I go in the tree, the more I find ... but so far, no twins in my kids' generation, and #1 Daughter has had two singles and isn't having any more ...
#2 Daughter, however, hasn't had children yet, ... and she's a tad anxious about the possibilities lol!
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We have many sets of twins in 2 of my lines going back 200 years. On my Dad's side they are all 1 boy and 1 girl twins. In one family the twins down the generation were always named Edwin and Emma and in the other family they were always named Martha and John.
On Mum's side the twins are fewer and always both girls!