AMAZING FAMILY RECORDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 31, 5 February 1910, Page 15

AMAZING FAMILY RECORDS.

OMVE BRANCHES EXTRAORDINARY.

According to statistical records, there are in Great Britain iig twins to every thousand births, 160 triplets to eyery -million births, and 8 quadruplets to every tnilUonl Consequently c very unusual event had to be chronicled when the wife of a Beaufort collier presented her husband recently, with four children—all boys—whom It la stated are still''doing welL One of the most remarkable Instances of quadruplets at birth, occurred five years ago In Glasgow, when a Mrs. Oollingan, the wife of a steel polisher, gave birth to four girls. At the time the , mother was only 28 years of age, and had been married five years. She flret had twine, then singles, end lastly quadruplet*. The latter, however, did not survive; A FRENCH BECOED. Mre. ColUngan'a record calls to mind that of Mrs. Josephine Ormsby, of Chicago, who had 1* children at seven births. They included "one set of triplets, two'pairs of twine, three singles, and one set of quadruplets." The quadruplets 'brought fortune In. their train, for Mrs. Ormeby made £50 a week by exhibiting them at a dime museum. But Mrs. Ormsby must yield the palm to the wife of a Parisian baker, who actually became the mother of 21''children at seven births, and alt within the space of seven years; while to prove that France has other family records to boast of, we are told by Boyle of a French lawyer who was the father of 46 ehlldren. Six: years ago Mrs. Pennoek, In her 2lat year, gave birth to her third set of twins. Mrs. Pennoek, a Swedish lady, who had emigrated to St. Xouis, was the remarkable .daughter of a remarkable mother, who gave birth to sli sets of twins, and had 24 childTen altogether. Furthermore, one of Mrs. Pennock's sisters bore six pairs of twins. and another sister four pairs; while 13 more of her mother's children had each three'sets of twins, making a total of Sβ sets of twins in one family. Talking of big families, the German Empire need, scarcely fear of any decrease In the, birthrate if many mothers follow the example of .one .healthy, active hausfrau of Berlin, who although still but 45 years old, has already 25 olive branches around her table. Another, who Is four years' her junior,' ushered twenty-three Into the world; while three other women between the age of 40 and 43 presented their husbands with twenty-one" descendants eacn. Two hundred, and forty Berlin women,, by the way, are the mothers .of from thirteen to twenty children apiece.

Authenticated instances of five at a birth are extremely rare. About eigfo't years ago, however, it was reported that a woman in Sicily, named Gra'nata, tiad twice presented her husband with quintuplets, the first tim-e five boys, and the second time aye girls, and constantly with triplets and quadruplets, having had altogether 42 children. It is impossible to verify this instance, put there Is proof of the fact that In October, 1300, the wife of a tailor named Nelson, of . Oxford Mark«t, London, had five children at a birth, while sixteen years previously a woman of Konlgsberg gave birth, to Quintuplets, and there Is even' an instance on record of a Texas mother, in November, ISSS, presenting her astonished husband with six babies, at once—four boys and two girls.

Aα interesting question in the history of families is— VTho has lived to see the greatest number of descendants? So far as is knowa, the record of Lady Temple, of Stone, has never been beaten. Lady Temple, who died in 1656, it may be mentioued, survived to see no fewer than 700 of her descendants. A: few years ago, Mrs. SadieShiner, of Southern Georgia, had 233 children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, ,antl great-great-grandchildren living, and 75 more were dead; the old lady thus lived to see 810 of her own descendant*.