Twins - how many sets do you have?

[aghadowey]

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).

[william james]

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

[avm228]

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

Anna

[Tony55]

    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

[kayfr]

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!!!

[maryd]

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.

[liverpool lass]

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.

[SallyF]

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

[Sarndra]

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