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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: lgardner2000 on Friday 03 September 10 20:47 BST (UK)
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Hello,
I am currently reading a book which is a true story of a midwife in London in the 1950's. In the book one lady had given birth 25 times, she had had 25 pregnancies, no multiple births. and as far as i know all survived. including her 25th pregnancy which she gave birth to at 28weeks gestation.
My question is how many pregnancies and children have people found in there research. (from one women)
From memory if i am correct as i am not currently at home and have not got information with me. My Gt grandfather was one of 14. Which im sure isnt a lot.
Thanks
Lisa
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My OH father was one of 15 (he is not sure though could have been more... I will now search the 1911)
xin
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My 3 x great Grandmother had 16 children.
She married in 1842 aged 20. Children born:
1843
1844
1845
1847
1848
1850
1852
1853
1855
1856
1858
1859
1861 (twins)
1863
1865
She died in 1865 (the year her last child was born). She was 42 years old.
I feel it was all too much for her personally. Her life was pregnany and giving birth.
Her husband was one of 16 himself... his mother was also pregnant for most of her life. She also died the year her 16th child was born.
Part of me feels bad for these women. They were baby machines. Their bodies must have been exhausted from the effort!
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I know what book you're reading ;) Her other one, Shadows of the Workhouse is really good too.
I have lots of 'strings' of 14/15 children. Really feel for the poor mothers!
Kim
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It does seem and is extremely sad to think that Women were hardly more than baby machines.. Thank goodness for choice. It is not all that long since there was no choice.... But I think today the choices are too great and in some cases too extreme. It is easy for girls to take a 'pill' to prevent or dispose of possible interference in their life... That is not good - well for me I feel it is wrong. I do understand necessities for prevention and protection against mistakes, and I do know mistakes happen. Nothing is infallible... but sometimes its easy to just have fun and not think ahead, and then pop a pill... WRONG ..
The Education or lack of it in our great grandparents life time often meant they welcomed these inevitable pregnancies and troiled through life without great expectations or wanting more. Today WANT and need and expectations are all that is considered.
There did seem to be a 'natural' population control.... due to the amount of early deaths.. I don't know. It is a difficult one. I just wish that girls were more careful and appreciate more what taking that pill actually means.
sorry just my thoughts...
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Hi all. Not as many as I thought then. Thought there would be more than 16.
Kim, just finished reading the first book. Have you read all three of her books? I couldn't believe it when I read 25th pregnancy & thought that was very unusual for the 1950's. Also you wouldn't think her body would cope with that many pregnancies.
Lisa
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Most of mine seem to fall in the 10-12 range, but one 2xgreat grandma had two babies in one year, one born Jan 1848 the second Oct 1848 :o her husband was still a teenager when the first one was born.
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i have i lady who had 20 :o but 14 is not uncomman in my tree
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My 4x gt granny Caroline Wertheim gave birth twelve times, after marrying a Polish migrant in early 1837.
1837 - twins
1839
1841
1842
1844
1846
1848
1850
1852
1855
1857 - twins
1859
Only four made it past twenty one :(
Pardon the irony of this sentence but we don't know we're born do we!
Matt
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My Grandmother gave birth to her first child 1889 - her last one was 1911, 22 years pregnant or just givin birth!
She had 12 children raised 10, two boys died around their 3rd birthday. My father (child 11) said that she was ashamed of being pregnant again with the last 3 that she would not go outside the house, she was 44 when pregnant with her last child.
Lancsliz
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I have always been told that my Gt Grandparents had 26 children. I came across this newspaper cutting a couple of years ago...there were only 24! ???
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My grandfather was 1 of 13 (11 survived infancy) and generally if there are big families they are between 10 and 15.
But there's a family story of one of my great grandfather's cousins that has meant to have had 20 but I think this included losses as I've only found 12 so far.
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my grandmother had 16 children,my dad was second born
8 boys and 8 girls,she was 5 foot nothing,very small frame,
and there is 14 still living,1930 she got married,
there was no twins in the family. eva
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Kim, just finished reading the first book. Have you read all three of her books? I couldn't believe it when I read 25th pregnancy & thought that was very unusual for the 1950's. Also you wouldn't think her body would cope with that many pregnancies.
Lisa
I know and yet, if I remember correctly, they were a really happy family! Not sure I would be after having 25 kids.
I didn't realise there was another book. Actually just looked and there are two more - Farewell to the East End and In the Midst of Life - will have to check those out.
Thanks
Kim :)
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the best my family can do is greatgranma who had 10, and reared 7.
OH's granma was one of eleven all of whom lived and thrived until one died of TB aged 25.
However, my son-in law's father was one of 16, and granny is still alive in her late seventies, having brought up her own family, and several of her grandchildren. Admittedly, she had the benefit of modern medicine.
eadaoin
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One of my ancestors had 15 children (no twins).
She had her first in 1847 at the age of 19, her last in 1870 when she was 42.
She died aged 78, and I believe out-lived one or two of the children.
Makes me feel tired just thinking about how hard it must have been for her, but she was obviously a toughie!
Mrs. T
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My great-great grandmother Frances Gadd gave birth 13 times - she married aged 18 in 1882 and gave birth to:
Ada 1882
Emma 1884
Richard 1886-1886 (died aged 6 weeks)
Ethel 1887
Frances 1890-1890 (died aged 11 months)
William 1891-1892 (died aged 10 months)
Robert 1893-1893 (died aged 5 days)
Robert 1895
Charles 1897-1898 (died aged 12 months)
Frances 1899-1899 (died aged 20 mins)
Walter 1901
Alice 1903-1903 (died aged 6 months)
Frank 1905
So she and husband William lost 7 out of 13 babies, including Richard and Robert who both died of Spina Bifida.
I think this might be the most children born to anyone in my tree
Matt
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One set of gg grandparents had 17, according to their own 1911 census return but family memory was of 22. I'm looking into it :)
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My documented maximum is 17 children borne by one woman (twice in my tree and in both cases involving no twins). For one of these (interestingly from the 16th century) I have names and baptismal dates for all 17 so I'm as confident as you can be that far back that this is right. The other is from the stated number of children born alive in the 1911 census, but I can only undisputably find 11. The surname is a common one, so I can't find children who were born and died between censuses without spending a sum the size of the national debt on certificates!
However, there is a statement in Burke's Peerage for one of my lines that one of my relatives had 20 children. I know of 14 and it is biologically possible for the remaining six to be interspersed between these 14 and to have died young, but from previous experience I know that BP often includes rather random facts that seem to have their basis in rumour rather than fact.
My GG grandfather was one of 15, including three sets of twins.
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Dear Lisa
I'd love to know the title and author of the book you are reading. I am fascinated by social history.
Janet
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Call the Midwife or Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth :)
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Thanks very much!
I'll put it on my Christmas list.
Sorry to mention the festive season so soon but S**nsb*rys have Christmas cakes in this week. :o
Janet
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Hi
My ex-MIL was one of 18, all of whom survived. She was born in 1940 as child number 12. No idea what job her father did but there didn't seem to be any break during the war years :-X
Sorry to mention the festive season so soon but S**nsb*rys have Christmas cakes in this week. :o
M****son had festive chocolates on one side of the aisle and summer garden stuff on the other side of the same aisle this week and just down from the festive stuff was the back to school bit. Talk about covering all bases ;)
Pebs
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These stores make out they do it to boost our happiness levels... ha.... its to boost their darn sales...!?!?!?
I know we need a booooost after such a long hot summer and the possibility of an equally long freezing cold winter -- but they cant fool me anymore... I walked into our wonderfully recently RE-furbished A da to find TWO double sided aisles of BOOZE in all varietys -- and at 7.00 a.m people were buying it??? I only went in for essentials..... like bread milk and ciggies
(ssshhhhh) ;) ;D
xin
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Call the Midwife or Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth :)
I've just ordered it from Amazon. Sounds fascinating.
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My great grandmother Ellen had 16 children (no twins). Married at 16 years 4 months, her first child was born less than 6 months later. The last was born when she was 43, and she was 77 when she died, having outlived her husband by 25 years! Not all the children were alive at the same time and only 10 survived to adulthood.
According to my grandmother (a daughter-in-law) she was a bit of a battleaxe - hardly surprising really :D
Linda
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My great granny had 15 children, starting in 1890 and by 1911 had given birth to 15 babies, 7 had lived and 8 had died :-[ I know that she was pregnant with number 16 when the 1911 census was taken and gave birth to a girl who survived and in 1914 she gave birth to a son who was her last baby and he lived until the age of 60.
My great granny died in 1960 aged 90 year old
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Amazing women :D :D
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There was me thinking one of my gran's was a baby machine when she had one at least every 18 months or less. There was 11 children all who survived. I think there is one family with a couple more! She named the kids after her side of the family.
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I was an au pair to a German pastor's family in the late 1950s. He had 14 children between the ages of 2 and 28. And for some time he was a prisoner of war! There were only a few bedrooms, but beds were concealed everywhere, folding up into the walls, etc. Fetching the milk from the dairy (no doorstep deliveries) was a major chore in itself. No wonder they needed an au pair!
There was no hot water system and Saturday night was bath night for everyone; a huge geyser fed with wood hung over the bath and as you washed yourself you would throw a few sticks in to heat the water for the next customer. As you can imagine, the whole process took hours. ;D
Sorry, I digressed a bit, but you brought back memories.
My husband's mother was one of 14 children and his father was one of 11 (no twins on either side). The next generation stuck to two per family!
Gillg
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One of my gg grandmothers had 12 children, one every year starting from 1876. It is said on her 12th pregnancy she declared I would rather die than go through it again. And that she did, she died 10 days after her last daughter was born.
One must feel for these women.
Suzy W
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Great Grand-Mother Ethel was one of 14, 10 of whom survived to adulthood. No wonder her daughter only went on to have 3 ;D