Family Size in Your Family Tree

[julie paradox]

Both my grandmothers were pregnant on their wedding days (early 1931). Sometimes I wish I'd known that earlier.

I have two children. My younger sister has one, two of my other sisters have two each. All born between 1999 and 2005, after four to ten years of marriage. As you may guess, birth control was used. One miscarriage and one caesarian in there. I am unaware of any abortions. My oldest sister and my brother have no children. I think they are happy with this.

I am one of 6, between 1962 and 1974. Birth control was used (after three years, people were beginning to ask if there was something wrong) and I'm pretty certain there were no abortions: my mother was told not to get pregnant again after my birth but I have two younger siblings (after that she had a hysterectomy). My parents were one of 6 and one of 5.

My cousins, born between 1953 (another hurried marriage) and 1986, were in groups of four, two, two; three, three, three and one (messy divorce). One unmarried uncle and one married but with no children. Only my parents and one aunt stayed married to their original spouse, though in the youngest case the remarriage was before the children. By about two months.

Cousins. Dad's sister1's children: had two starting young, divorced, at least one of them has two children now; had one much later, not sure about marital status; had none. Sister2's children: none; two very respectably; none? Brother1's children: one very respectably and with impeccable right-on-ness; none that I know of; triplets I have never met, divorced soon after. Brother2's child: no idea, but at least one turned up in my sister's primary school class (despite the messy divorce both he and his mother appear to have kept the unusual surname).

Mum's brother2's children: 2 in the late 80s, now divorced; not entirely sure about the others. Sister1's children: eeek have just realised I don't actually know, beyond the fact that Jenny was pregnant when she and her husband went to Australia a few years ago. Sister2's children - the youngest- haven't had any yet.

Paternal grandfather born 1908 had one full sister and some younger half-siblings (the details are 200 miles away). His parents weren't married as his father had a wife (no children). His sister married someone from one of the stricter sects and had no children - I believe unintentionally. At least one of his half-siblings had several. I'm not sure about his father. His mother was one of a number, but I don't think it was in double figures.

Paternal grandmother born 1907 was youngest of three. Her mother died either in childbirth or shortly after, at which point their father deposited them in a children's home and emigrated to North America. Sister married and had at least one son, who was injured in WWII with permanent mental effects. Brother I don't know about. Mother was one of what I'd consider normal for the time.

Maternal grandfather: I have no idea. It's there somewhere but 200 miles away.

Maternal grandmother born 1910: I think it was 4 full siblings and 10 older half-siblings. Something like that. Her mother was one of half-a-dozen, her father I have just realised I don't actually know that either but I think it was three or four. He used to tell the tale that his grandmother had opened the door one day to an Irishwoman who said "this baby belongs to your son"; but the actual boring evidence doesn't actually back this up.

My husband is one of 4, the last one being an "afterthought". Both his parents were one of 2: I think more people used bc in the thirties and forties than let on ;)

[Lianachu]

My maternal grandfather was one of 10 (the youngest of whom died in infancy) and his mother was the oldest of 13. It seems she wasn't put off by having so many siblings of her own!

My maternal grandmother was one of 3, as was her mother. Not so much into big families on that side.

I'm the youngest of 2. My mom wanted #3 but my dad said no.

Myself, I want a bunch of kids. Not a fundie bunch, mind, but 5+.

[galaxygirl]

My parents only had me and my sister, we're a little more than three years apart.

My maternal grandparents had three kids. Neither of my mom's brothers has kids. The youngest brother was definitely not planned, he's more than ten years younger than his older two siblings.

My paternal grandparents had five kids. There's three years between each of the kids. All five of them had two children of their own.

The only grandparent I know any family history for sure about is my mom's mother. She's from a family of eight children. I remember hearing that she and her older sister had to take care of the younger ones because both of their parents worked.

[ADoyle90815]

There is an ancestor on my dad's side who had 13 children, but most of those children died before they could have reached adulthood. My mom was the youngest of 3, mostly because her biological dad was killed in a car accident, and my dad was the oldest of 6 in an Irish Catholic family. My parents were done after my younger brother was born, another uncle only had one child, and another uncle was done after 2 children, especially after the youngest child was born prematurely. The other uncles didn't have children, but one became a step dad after he and his first wife divorced, and he married someone with children.

[GeoBQn]

Are you using Ancestry.com or something else? I have had trouble doing our geneology and haven;t forked out any money yet, but would like to get back at it.

I use Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org, and Legacy.com to find obits. The best tip I have is to start finding records for people who you know existed, both direct ancestors and their siblings, and that can eventually lead to names of earlier ancestors. I'm not going to lie--if you come from any background other than "white American since forever" or Germanic-speaking countries, it will be hard. It took me so long to find the name of a 2x great-grandfather, while I wanted to punch a friend who found out after one day of searching that he was descended from Charlemagne.

[maybeizfundie]

Hmmm, I don't know much beyond my grandparents.

My maternal grandma was one of five.

My maternal grandpa had one (?) sibling, I think.

Paternal grandma, only child

Paternal grandpa, one of two.

Those two sets of grandparents had 4 children each.

My parents had 4 children, 1 adopted. They also had 1 miscarriage and would gladly have had more.

Two uncles have 3 children each, one has 4 children, one has 2 children, and the rest of the uncles and aunts are childless.

I don't know of anyone in our extended family in my parents generation who had more than 4. Dh and I would very much like to have a large family, so we will definitely be the oddballs if that happens. We're still at only 3 right now though.

[CanadianHippie]

My mom's side is small (in relation to what I know) she is one of five, I don't know about her parents or grandparents but I think one of them may have come from a family with 20+ kids (not sure, but fairly certain if it is so, it's an exception rather than the rule).

My dad's side? Two words... Irish Catholic. I have so many aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins kids, etc, that I'm not sure I've even met them all yet. Family reunions on that side of the family usually involve 300+ attendees, and only goes back to my grandparents generation. My dad is one of 12, his dad is one of 16, his dad is one of 14... And so on. I'm one of four, and all of my dad's brothers have at least that many kids. His sisters seem to be the only ones who stuck with one or two. Oh and the house my dad grew up in was a three bedroom 2 bathroom house. So mom and dad in one room, 6 boys in another, and 6 girls in the third.

[twin2]

My grandma was one of 16. However, if you add in the stillbirths and the babies who died early in infancy the number is 22. She is reason number one why I hate the Duggars and those who defend their lifestyle. She was 2nd oldest and the eldest daughter, she was a J'slave. I have wanted to share her story with you all, but I'm not sure its my story to tell.

[auntdoc]

"I love family history, I wish we knew more. But my mom's parents have passed and any information they had is gone with them."

You can find out a lot of info abt your ancestors through so many documents if you are really interested in doing so. Once you get started the first document will lead you on and on. Don't be discouraged.

[MonkeyMomma]

My paternal grandmother was one of 10 girls (and one of a set of triplets!). She had 2, my dad fathered 4, and we range in offspring from 5 to 2 to 1 (me).

My maternal grandparents had 9 children, eight surviving to adulthood, all single births (and yes, they are Catholic). None of their kids had more than 4 kids.

[PennySycamore]

My mom was the second youngest of 10 -five girls and five boys. The children were spaced about two years apart probably due to the spacing effect of breastfeeding. My mom's oldest sister would have been 100 this year. All of the kids, including my mom, are gone now except for two sisters.

My dad had two sisters. Both my dad and his younger sister are dead, but his older sister is still alive and kicking. She's 85.

I have two brothers and a sister. I'm the baby of the family and my parents called it quits after me. I had very severe Rh jaundice and the doctors told my parents that it was unlikely that future babies would survive. I have four girls myself and also lost a premie, Katherine, at 11 months due to complications of BPD.

When you go back a ways, my sixth great-grandfather on my paternal grandma's side was the father of 18 children. He fathered nine kids with each of his two wives. On my mom's side, her mom's grandmother had about 7 children. Her first husband died in the Civil War. He had gotten his younger brother to promise to marry his widow if he didn't come back from the war. I think my great-grandma was from the second marriage.

ETA: I don't know of any huge families on my husband's father's side of the family and they're Irish Catholic, but his maternal grandmother had 12 brothers and sisters. One of her oldest brothers was killed in World War I when Nana was 2. They were not Catholic, btw, but Anglican or Methodist.

ETD: An incomplete thought

[susanmr5]

Dad's side:

Grandpa had like 10+ siblings. Very few of them survived to adulthood. I think Grandpa died the oldest at age 94.

Not sure about Grandma's family, but I know she had several siblings. She also didn't move here from the "old country" like Grandpa's family did.

Dad has 4 siblings, most who have 2-3 kids.

Mom's side:

A little fuzzier. Know next to nothing about Grandpa's siblings. Grandma had 4 or 5.

Mom has 3 siblings and several who didn't survive (miscarriage, infant death). I think Grandma said she was pregnant 7 or 8 times and my mom had a twin that didn't make it.

I probably would have more siblings if my mom didn't have trouble getting pregnant. We plan on having 2-3. But I'd be ok with more kids than that if we were in a position to support them. I think the reason most of my family had larger numbers of children wasn't religious or even related to birth control. They were farming families in very rural areas. Infant mortality was pretty high and more kids = more people to do the work.

[tabitha2]

I was an only child.They were to poor for another.

My Father was adopted-the product of a drunken night out at the bar-and his adoptive mother had one bio son.Very abusive mentally,physically and emotionally the lot of them.

My Maternal Grandparents had 3 kids and she came a whisper from death from a tubal pregnancy.When My mother was 12,her father ran off to marry a teen neighbor,went on to marry one more time,get wealthy have more children and forgot about my grandmother and his first kids completely.Grandmother had to take a bus to Texas fast where they lived in abject poverty.Mother shuts me down when I ask to many questions.

My Maternal grandmother had 3 siblings before her mother died of Diabetes.

Her no good husband lived in upstate with 6 or 7 brothers one sister and aged parents who did not know English.Only he and one brother and the sister ever married.The rest stayed on the dairy farm with Ma and Pa.A cold family they say.

I got screwed from both ends i guess :roll:

[O Latin]

We don't have many big families in my family, at least not recently. I have two siblings. My dad is one of four and my mom is one of three. None of my dad's siblings have kids. My mom's brothers each have three.

My dad's father had (I think) two or three sisters. I don't know about his mom. My mom's parents were both only children.

I have a much smaller number of relatives than a lot of people I know. If I add up all of my living relatives, including spouses and unborn babies, I come up with a grand total of 22. I know people who have more cousins than that.

[LIzzieB]

Me: 1 of 2

Mother's side of the family is very small - mostly Protestant from the UK

Mother: 1 of 2

Maternal grandmother: only child (UK)

Maternal grandfather: only child (UK)

Grandmother's father: only child (UK)

Grandmother's mother: 1 of 5 (UK)

Grandfather's mother: 1 of 3 (Australia of German ancestry)

Grandfather's father: unknown - although we have found out through DNA genealogy that this side of the family is Russian Ashkenazi Jew, which was somewhat surprising as we thought we were from Cambridgeshire in the UK!

Going back further, mostly families of 5 to 8 children. One of my favourite ancestors was one of the very first kindergarten teachers in the world, who then went on to emigrate from Germany to Australia and have 8 children, only 5 of whom made it to adulthood.

Father's side is large and mostly Irish Roman Catholic from Bradford in the UK

Father: 1 of 4 (+1 miscarriage)

Paternal grandfather: youngest of 10

Paternal grandmother: middle of 3

Grandfather's father: one of 2, illegitimate, siblings were born 7 years apart

The rest on all side were good Catholics and had heaps of kids, despite living in poverty.

[JesusFightClub]

On my dad's side, my grandma was one of 11 surviving kids. On my mum's my granddad was one of two. We are not a very close family so IDK about the rest.

My dad did some genealogy stuff and it confirmed what we already knew, basically on my dad's side Irish who moved to Scotland and my mum's side it's been difficult to get information on but were Jewish quite a while back (this had always been said but it is not in living memory).

[let-them-eat-cake]

My maternal grandmother was an only child.

My dad is one of 13. He is atheist but was brought up Catholic. He says life with that many brothers and sisters is horrible - they were very poor and his parents were totally clueless as to how to properly raise all of them. He doesn't talk to any of his brothers anymore, only his sisters. He barely talks to his parents.

My mother was one of four, but she was raised only with her little brother, by their grandparents.

I don't know about any of my other ancestors except that my maternal great-grandfather had brothers and sisters but I don't know how many.

I have an older half-sister so my mother had two children, and I'm my father's only child (he didn't even want any kids...he was really upset when my mom got pregnant with me..don't worry, he got over it quickly.)

[takers401]

My parents are each one of three.

My maternal grandmother is one of eight and my maternal grandfather is one of 10 or so. The number isn't too clear. During the depression his father took him, a few of the boys, and an older sister or two from Minnesota to Washington, left them in a barn to survive on their own, and went down to California to find work. The mother, a few other boys, and a few girls stayed back home and tried to survive as well. At some point in time some of the family members returned to Minnesota, others stayed in Washington, and others were born along the way.

My paternal grandmother is one of four and my paternal grandfather is one of three. Although his mother married and buried five husbands and his brothers, I believe, are all half-brothers.

[kb2]

I posted this in another thread, but my family tree has 5-6 kids from most mothers going back in time. Some families had 10-12 kids, but only if the father remarried after the first wife's death. I guess my ancestors didn't give birth very well compared to some others. : )

My grandparents had 7, 4, 5, and (I should ask about the last one) siblings. My parents were in two and three-child families. All my aunts and uncles and cousins have had three kids, if any. (There actually aren't any one or two or four child families--they're very consistent.)

I don't have any fun stories about birth control, just some anecdotes my grandmother told me once that I'm trying really hard to forget. But we did find a that secret half-sibling of a grandparent exists!