Families with several children. Large families

Photo Facebook/The Radford Family

The natives of a small British town in Lancashire have already sworn that enough is enough - their 18th child will be their last. And after that - no, no. But suddenly, when no one was waiting for him, bam - and the 19th appeared. Well, if this is the case, then it would be stupid not to give birth on the 20th, to round it up, so to speak.

The twentieth, Archie, definitely should have remained the youngest. And suddenly in 2018 it turns out: Sue Radford is pregnant again. She gave birth to baby Bonnie in November! And when the midwives began to ask whether to wait for her, according to tradition, next year, the happy 43-year-old mother decisively said: “Not this time! We decided to stop."

Sue and her husband Noel Radford had their first child when Sue was still practically a child herself - she was only 14 years old. They could hardly have imagined that three decades would pass, and the family would grow so large that they would have to buy 21 loaves of bread, 63 liters of milk, 14 boxes of cereal and 28 rolls of toilet paper per week.

The Radford family are TV stars in Britain—a reality show about their lives has been shown on TV for several years now. And although it is not easy to raise such a number of children, they do not ask for help from the state - the money that the head of the family earns in the baking business is enough.

Kelly and Jill Bates, USA

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The Bates family is well known in America - they are regular participants in the reality show about themselves, Bringing Up Bates, which shows the life of the couple and their 19 children. Jill and Kelly are devout evangelists, so they believe that only the Lord God can limit a husband and wife in terms of childbearing. Which, as is easy to see, does not particularly limit them. Moreover, Kelly never had twins or triplets - she consistently gave birth to a child a year.

The family lives in a spacious house with five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, two kitchens and five washing machines. They are not in poverty, since Gil has his own logging company.

All the Bates children were (and some are still) on homeschooling. Four of the eldest have already started their own families, and most of the children are already over 18, so Kelly and Gil are not far off the prospect of becoming the most “multi-grandchildren” grandparents.

Ray and Janie Bonell, Australia

Photo of the family's Facebook page

“I never dreamed of this,” says Janie Bonell from Australia. - God has a great sense of humor. When I was a teenager, when asked if I wanted to have children, I usually answered: “No, I’m not interested.” I didn’t like children, and they didn’t like me either.”

But her husband Ray grew up in a large family - it was he, overcoming his wife’s resistance, who initiated the birth of their first child. More precisely, the firstborns - they immediately got twins, but Janie already asked for a third child herself. The couple fell in love so much that they now have 16 children and are thinking about a 17th.

How do they manage to cope? “Lists! - says Janie. - We have lists all over the walls of what needs to be bought and done. There is also a duty schedule, which helps children be responsible for themselves and their siblings.”

“Children start doing duty at the age of 8, and by the age of 10, each person can cook dinner for 20 people,” says Janie, adding that they usually spend about 600 Australian dollars (about ₽25,000) a week on food. .

Alexander and Elena Shishkin, Russia

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The Shishkin family from the Voronezh region has two full-fledged football teams: 20 children and parents as playing coaches. We are joking - the whole family does not go to the football field, but thanks to its fertility it is included in the Russian Book of Records.

The parents, their 9 sons and 11 daughters live in their 11-room house; they have a vegetable garden and a farm with livestock. Housekeeping requires a lot of effort, so Elena said more than once in an interview that she has practically no time left to raise children - the younger ones are raised by the older ones.

More than half of the children have already left and started their own families (the eldest son is 40, and the youngest daughter is 15), but 9 children still live with their parents.

The father of the family worked as a driver all his life, now he and his wife are retired. Sponsors help the Shishkins - they pay for clothes and treatment, they built a playground. The authorities gave the large family a Gazelle, but the prudent owners sold the car and bought it cheaper.

Jose Maria Postigo and Rosa Peak, Spain

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Jose Maria had 16 brothers and sisters, and Rosa had 13, so it is not at all surprising that, having created their family, they immediately took up issues of increasing it. However, the beginning was tragic: their first three children were born with serious heart problems, two died as infants, and only the eldest girl survived (she later lived only until she was 22).

Relatives and doctors dissuaded the couple from giving birth further, but they did not listen and turned out to be right - they gave birth to 15 completely healthy children. Now their family is the largest in Spain and one of the largest in Europe. To help other families who have children with heart problems, the couple set up a charity foundation.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar

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There are 10 boys and 9 girls in a crowded American family. The Duggars were real national stars, which is not at all surprising given the cult of family that exists in this country: they starred in a reality show about their family, took part in the filming of many other shows and appeared on the covers of glossy magazines. And they would have remained stars if not for one “but”.

At first, Jim Bob and Michelle did not want children - in their own words, after their wedding in 1984, they used birth control pills for several years - they say, now we will live for ourselves, and we will have children sometime later. However, after talking with the doctor, they suddenly realized that because of their selfishness they did not allow the child to be born, and from then on their motto became: “As many as God will send.” And God sent. It's funny, but all the Duggar children are named with the letter J: Jill, Jessa, Jana, Josh, Jinger, Joy Anna, Josie, John, Jordyn, Josiah, Jackson, Jedidiah, Jason, Joseph, Jeremiah, Jennifer, Justin, Joanna, James.

In 2015, a scandal erupted: information appeared in the media that the couple’s son, Josh, when he was 14 years old, committed sexual acts with five little girls, including his sisters. As a result of the investigation, it turned out that the parents knew about this, but since Jim participated in the elections to the state House of Representatives, they decided to hush up the scandal and send Josh to another city to live with a family friend. When all this was revealed, already an adult Josh was working as the director of one of the Christian public organizations in Washington. And although he resigned and apologized, the star of the family nevertheless declined - the show about them was taken off the air.

Who else?

The largest family in history

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The record belongs to our compatriots - the Vasiliev family of Russian peasants who lived in the 18th century and had 69 children, including 16 twins and 7 triplets. Moreover, only two children died in infancy.

IN different countries In the world, large families are considered to be families with different numbers of children. In Russia (in some regions), a family with three children is considered large. Families with a large number of children are everywhere: Europe, Asia, America, Africa. We decided to find out what they are - the most large families in the world? Our list includes only those families in which the children were born to their parents and not taken into care.

10. Jose Maria Postigo and Rosa Peach | 15 children

Jose Maria Postigo and Rosa Peach - 15 children.

This is the largest family in Spain. My parents grew up in large families and had no doubt that someday they would have their own large family. Rosa and Jose Maria lost three children - they were born with heart disease. After experiencing tragic incidents, the parents gave birth to 15 healthy babies. The couple leads an active social life and founded a charitable organization. Rose found time to write a book about how to live happily while raising 15 children. In March 2017, Jose Maria Postigo died of liver cancer, and now all the worries about his large family fell on the shoulders of his wife Rosa.

9. The Bonell Family | 16 children

Bonell family - 16 children.

Before meeting her future husband Ray, Australian Jenny had absolutely no interest in marriage, much less children. Now the Bonells are among the largest families in the world, and Jenny is not going to stop, having given birth to 16 children. Over the years of marriage, she suffered 7 miscarriages, but this did not stop mother of many children who loves children. Now Ray and Jenny are raising 7 daughters and 9 sons. For such a number of children, the couple had to get a bus. Despite the difficulties, the Bonells do not rule out the possibility of having another child in their family someday.

8. The Bates Family | 19 children

The Bates family - 19 children.

Kelly, the mother of one of the largest families in the world, gives birth to babies almost every year. She never had twins, twins or triplets. The Bateses are evangelicals, so they do not use contraception. None of the children attend public kindergartens or schools - they were all educated at home. The four eldest sons have already started their own families and live separately from their parents.

7. The Radford Family | 19 children

Radford family - 19 children.

The Radfords are the largest family in the UK. It is noteworthy that Sue Radford gave birth to her first child at the age of 14. Now the couple has 19 children. They both lived in foster families, knew each other since they were seven and dreamed of their big and friendly family. In the summer of 2017, it became known that an addition was expected to the large family - 42-year-old Sue was expecting her 20th child. She already knows it will be a boy. At this point, according to Sue and Noel, they decided to stop - age does not allow a woman to bear more children.

The head of the family, Noel, is the owner of a bakery, where he works from 5 a.m. to late evening to support numerous offspring. The Radfords are completely self-sufficient and do not ask for help from the government.

6. The Duggar Family | 19 children

The Duggar family has 19 children.

The Duggar family is one of the most famous large families in the world thanks to the TV show 19 Kids and Counting, which chronicles their Everyday life. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are the parents of 10 boys and 9 girls. A large family lives in Tontitown, Arkansas. They lead a quiet lifestyle, and their children are educated at home. Older children help parents raise younger ones and perform daily household chores.

Fun fact: All the children in this family have names that start with the letter “J.” Their parents explain the presence of so many children by the miscarriage that ended Michelle’s first pregnancy. The Duggar elders believe that the tragedy occurred because of oral contraceptives. After that they refused to take them. In 2011, the Duggars announced that they were expecting their 20th child, but Michelle suffered a miscarriage.

5. Shishkin family | 20 children

The Shishkin family - 20 children.

The largest family in Russia lives in the Voronezh region. The Shishkins gave birth to 11 girls and 9 boys. The father of the family, Alexander, grew up in big family and always dreamed that he would have many children. The elders have already grown up and moved away, and ten younger children now live with their parents. Alexander and Elena can also boast of an impressive number of grandchildren - they have 23 of them. Not everything is smooth in their life and everyday life for the Shishkins - they only have to pay huge sums of money every month for electricity and water.

4. Guinness Family | 21 children

Guinness family - 21 children.

Irish brewer Arthur Guinness is known not only as the founder of the legendary Guinness brand, but also as the head of a large family of 21 children. Three of the children continued the family business and became brewers following their father's example. By the way, the Guinness Book of Records, popular all over the world, is directly related to the large brewer. One day it was decided to create an authoritative source that would help resolve disputes that arise among pub visitors. At first, the book contained scientific facts, which gradually replaced the amazing and extraordinary achievements of people from all over the globe.

3. Nameni Family | 21 children

Nameni family - 21 children.

The largest family in Ukraine lives in the village of Ostritsa, Chernivtsi region. Leonora and Janos are believers, so they rely on God for childbirth. The older children already have their own families, and Leonora and Janos have six grandchildren. They make a living from agriculture. They don’t expect help from the state; the father of the family works where he can. After the birth of their 20th child, the family was included in the Ukrainian Book of Records, and Leonora received the title of mother-heroine.

2. Greenhill Family | 39 children

Greenhill family - 39 children.

The Greenhill family, who lived in England in the 17th century, is considered one of the largest families in the world. They raised 32 daughters and 7 sons. Elizabeth Greenhill holds an amazing record: she gave birth 37 times to one baby and once to twins.

1. Vasiliev family | 67 children

The Vasiliev family - 67 children.

All fertility records in modern large families pale in comparison to the story of a Russian peasant woman who gave birth to 69 children. Her name, unfortunately, remains unknown. According to information from the chronicle of the St. Nicholas Monastery, the first wife of the peasant Fyodor Vasilyev gave birth 27 times: 16 pairs of twins, 7 triplets and 4 quadruplets. Only two children did not survive infancy. The Vasilyevs thus became the largest family in the world.

The family is the unit of society, its foundation. Everything that happens inside it is reflected in society, since the latter is formed by hundreds of thousands, millions of such cells. In this article, we will compile an unusual list of the most prolific marriages and learn about the largest families in the world (and in history). I wonder who was not afraid of a large number of descendants and large-scale continuation of their family? Let's start our top ten "Most large families in the world".

Vasilievs from Russia

In the 18th century, this family set a world record. No one has beaten him yet. The huge Vasilyev family from Shuisky district opens our top list of “The Largest Families in the World.” The wife of the peasant Vasiliev gave birth to 69 children! And so many descendants were born in just 40 years life together. How is this possible?! This is explained by several multiple pregnancies peasant women: 4 children were born 4 times, triplets appeared 7 times, 16 cases when twins came to this family. After the death of his first wife, the peasant Vasiliev married a second time - from this marriage 18 more children were born. As a result, he turned out to be the father of 87 children.

Leontins from Chile

Our list of the "Largest Families in the World" is presented by the following Chilean couple of prolific parents, the Leontines. At the beginning of the 20th century, the 64th child was born into a friendly and large family. However, only 55 children were officially registered. This is not surprising or suspicious, since this situation with “unofficial” offspring is quite common in Chile.

Gravata from Italy

Around the same time, in the twenties of the 20th century, the 62nd baby was born into the Gravata family in Palermo. Throughout her life, Mama Rose gave birth to one set of sixes, quintuplets, quadruplets and twice triplets, the rest of the births brought one child at a time.

Kirillovs from Russia

And again a large couple from Russia! In the 18th century, on the territory of our country, in the village of Vvedenskoye, the peasant family of Yakov Kirillov lived and became famous. He continues our list of “The Largest Families in the World.” In total, the peasant had 72 children in his 60s. His first wife bore him 57 children, and his second wife 15. It was for these successes that Yakov Kirillov was noted at court by Catherine II.

Grenade from Italy

Italy is not far behind! Another large foreign family named Granata continues our top list. In 1832, their 52nd child was born.

Mott from UK

The Englishmen Elizabeth and John Mott entered into a marriage in 1676. They did not have to regret this decision. As a result of their family life 42 healthy children were born.

Greenhill from UK

Another English couple, the Greenhills, who lived in Great Britain in the 17th century, gave birth to 39 children. That’s why they made it onto our unusually prolific list.

Daad Mohamed Al Balushi from UAE

In the United Arab Emirates in 2012, the 94th child was born into the huge family of Daad Mohamed al-Balushi. Despite such a number of children, this prolific father is not in first place due to the fact that he was provided with such a large number of children by 18 wives, successively replacing each other after the divorce. According to Sharia law, a man could have 4 official wives at the same time. However, due to his large offspring, he continues our top list of “The Largest Families in the World.”

Zion Khan from Indonesia

Today in the Indian village, similar views of Daad Mohamed al-Balushi are shared by Zion Khan, the founder of the sect, who, according to the laws of his religious cell, can have an unlimited number of wives. His large family lives in a modest house of one hundred rooms: 38 women of Zion live there, who bore their husbands a total of 94 children. The father of many children does not want to stop there and intends to continue his family line.

Moulay from Morocco

In the 18th century in Morocco, the cruel Sultan Moulay Ismail, the owner of hundreds of wives and concubines, was in power. The Guinness Book of Records reflected the following figures on its pages: the Sultan gave birth to 700 boys and 342 girls. However, according to historical notes, half of the children born to concubines were not officially registered. The information reflects that every 4 days in the life of Moulay Ismail, his child was born. Be that as it may, he is the largest father in the world, and his family of thousands of wives and children is the largest large family in the world in all of history, albeit in the meaning of this word that is unusual for us (for us, marriage is a monounion ).

Large families in the past

A long time ago it was believed that a family should be large and have many children - it would be easier to live together big world. When everyone does their part, things go faster and smoother. Crafts (and this is training) and doing business in the world (society) were passed on from grandfathers and fathers to sons and grandsons, and housekeeping and all women's worldly wisdom wandered from grandmothers and mothers to daughters and granddaughters. This is how knowledge, skills and abilities were transferred, and culture was absorbed. The upbringing and training of the younger ones (through work, by example, mutual assistance, through communication with each other) took place interactively, right before our eyes. This did not depend on the strata of the population. Those who had the opportunity to receive education from other teachers and professionals undoubtedly received it, but it was additional, developing, expanding the boundaries of the knowledge that already existed. The development of generations went something like this.

Large families today

Over time, everything has changed: social conditions, social attitudes and demographic worldview. Nowadays in Russia a family with three or more children is considered to have many children. Not everyone decides to have such a large number of children. It would be more correct to say that few people dare. There are only 7-9 percent of all existing families in Russia with many children. This situation is a reflection of many social factors: this is an insufficient amount of financial earnings, and environmental deterioration, which affects the health of women and men of reproductive age, and those who work on an equal basis with men, instead of doing housework and raising children, as well as the emergence of a negative attitude towards large families.

Regarding our topic, we can probably dwell a little more on the last factor. For what reason has society formed negative attitude to large families? The fact is that in recent decades such “cells of society” have been mistakenly associated with disadvantaged ones. This happened due to the loss of some representatives of moral character and lack of education. Such couples, when giving birth to children, do not engage in their upbringing and development (they often find themselves later without the participation and help of the second parent). Sometimes a large number of children may even be explained by existing benefits (the state, for support purposes, allocates special subsidies to large families). Such a child, of course, having a bad example before his eyes, as a rule, repeats it in his life.

However, it is a mistake to judge an entire category of large families by individual disadvantaged representatives. But in order for a shift to occur in the perception of society, successful examples are again needed in the upbringing and overcoming of common everyday difficulties by large families, and this is not a quick matter, it is the matter of an entire era.

IN modern world A family with three or a little more children is considered to be a large family. Modern couples rarely think about having a second, much less a third, child, but how would you react if you learned that there are nineteen children in the family?! Meet the most large couples in the history of mankind.

1 Children: 69

Living in the 18th century, the Vasiliev peasant family was noted by the Book of Records as the largest family with many children. Fyodor Vasiliev and his first wife gave birth to and raised 69 children. In total, the woman, whose name was not preserved in the archives, gave birth 27 times from 1725 to 1765. A remarkable fact: after the death of his wife, Vasiliev brought a second wife into the house, who bore him 18 more children. If you count the children from Fyodor Vasiliev’s two marriages, then he had as many as 87 children. According to the most conservative estimates, Vasiliev has already had about 70 thousand descendants to this day.

2 Children: 58

A resident of San Antonio (Chile), Leontina Albino gave birth to 58 children in her life. She gave birth to her 58th child at the age of 55. However, the lives of eleven children were taken by the earthquake. According to unverified data, after this the couple had nine more children. An interesting fact is that she got married at the age of 12 for 30 year old man. This woman also became famous for giving birth to triplets five times in a row, all boys.

3 Children: 57

In third place among the largest families is the peasant woman Kirillova. The family lived in the 18th century. This woman gave birth to 57 children in her life, and she was delivered only 21 times. Of these, 4 times she gave birth to 4 children at once. Very little was known about this family, it was even believed that the story was embellished, but for one court hearing documents were brought up that actually confirmed that the Kirillov family had 57 children.

4 Children: 53

This woman was born in 1448, and became famous for having given birth to 53 children by the age of 50. In total, she gave birth 29 times, and once gave birth to 7 children at once. Unfortunately, out of 53 children, 19 died at birth, perhaps this was the norm for the 15th century, but the remaining 36 children successfully grew up and reached adulthood.

5 Children: 39

A couple from England, William and Elizabeth Greenhill, who lived in the 17th century, raised a total of 39 children. The woman herself holds the record for the number of successful births: 37 times she gave birth to one child and once gave birth to twins. The 39th child was born when Elizabeth was 54 years old, and her husband passed away shortly before giving birth.

6 Children: 21

The 18th century turned out to be rich in large couples. It was during this period that the youngest 21st child was born to the world famous brewer from Ireland, Arthur Guinness. Ten descendants of this man managed to live to adulthood, and three became successors to the family business.

7 Children: 21

Currently living in America, the Crocker family has 21 children. Wilson and Anna Crocker dreamed of having a big family from the first day they met.

8 Children: 21

In Ukraine, the Nameni family is officially recognized as the largest couple. This couple, raising twenty-one children, lives in the village of Ostritsa (Chernivtsi region).

If you grew up in a large family, then you have probably experienced the chaos that reigns in the house during family holidays and celebrations. However, on this moment There is a prevailing trend in the world of declining birth rates. Since 1950, the world's total fertility rate has fallen from an average of 4.95 children per woman to 2.36. However, large families still remain an important part of culture and economics around the world. Throughout time, there have been a lot of cases where women became mothers of more than 10 children, and today we will tell you a little more about them.

10. Mrs. Harrison - 35 children

We don't know much about Mrs. Harrison (including her first name). This woman lived most of her life on Vere Street in London, England. An article about her was published in the magazine John Mockett, which talked about the birth of her 35th child in 1736. We do not know how many of her children survived to adulthood, just as we do not know how many births this woman experienced.

9. Elizabeth Greenhill – 39 children

Thomas Greenhill was a well-known English surgeon in his day, as well as an educator and proponent of embalming. He gained his fame after publishing his book entitled “The Art of Embalming,” although at that time such a practice was quite rare. Thomas was the last of 39 children born to Elizabeth and William Greenhill. What is surprising is that there were only two twins in their family; all the other children were born separately. In total, Elizabeth experienced 37 births.

8. Alice Hooks – 41 children


Everything we know about Alice Hooks comes from the inscription on her son's gravestone in Conway Church cemetery in North Wales. According to this inscription, Nicholas, who died in 1637, was the 41st son of Alice Hooks.

7. Elizabeth Mott – 42 children

Elizabeth Mott was born in the village of Monks Kirby in England and married John Mott in 1676, after which she began her journey as a mother of many children. All of Elizabeth's pregnancies ended at term; she produced 42 healthy babies.

6. Maddalena Granata – 52 children

Maddalena Granata, who was born in 1839 in Italy, is rumored to have given birth to 52 children and became a real local celebrity. We know little about whether her children subsequently survived, but giving birth to 52 children is quite a feat in itself.

5. Barbara Stratzmann – 53 children


Barbara was born in Bönnigheim, Germany, and is rumored to have given birth to a total of 53 children in her lifetime. At the time of their last birth, Barbara was 50 years old and managed to survive 29 births, giving the world five times twins, four times triplets, once six at a time, and then seven at a time. Of Barbara's 53 children, 19 were stillborn, which was not uncommon at that time. However, 34 children survived to adulthood.

4. Leontina Albina – 55 children


Born in 1926 in Chile, Leontina Albina holds the record for modern history by the largest number of children. According to her, she gave birth to 64 children, but only 55 of them were officially registered (not a rare occurrence in Chile). Only 40 of Leontina's children lived to adulthood.

3. Kirillov family – 57 children


Peasant Kirillova from the village of Vvedenskoye (Russia) managed to give birth to 57 children in her entire life. She went through labor 21 times in total, giving birth to 10 pairs of twins, seven triplets and four quadruplets. Since nothing else is known about her, many consider this story to be just a legend. However, according to court papers, the Kirillov family actually had 57 children.

2. Rose Gravata (Mrs. Gravata) – 62 children


The case of the Gravata family caused quite a stir in the local press in October 1923, when it turned out that a resident of Palermo (Italy) had recently become a mother for the 62nd time. Rosa Gravata gave birth to triplets twice, quadruplets once, quintuplets and even sextuplets. All her other children were born separately. All of them were born healthy, but it was never known whether they managed to survive to adulthood.

1. Vasiliev family – 69 children


A certain Vasilyeva (we never managed to find out her name) even managed to get into the Guinness Book of Records, receiving the title of “most prolific mother.” Vasilyeva was a peasant woman who lived in the city of Shuya in Russia in the 18th century. Throughout her life, she managed to give birth to 69 children as a result of 27 births (between 1725 and 1765). Her offspring include 16 pairs of twins, seven triplets and four pairs of quadruplets. What's even more surprising is that only two of her children did not live to adulthood.