Twins - how many sets do you have?

[JillJ]

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

[kerryb]

Well you weren't important, you were only the mother!!!

Thank goodness they don't always have that attitude nowadays!

Kerry

[PrueM]

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

[JillJ]

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

[corinne]

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.

[AnneMc]

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

[rogers2]

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)

[Su]

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

[MrsLizzy]

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! 

But not as much as it fills the boyfriend with terror!!