Who has the most siblings? children?

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appleman2006
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by appleman2006 »

4 children, 1 grandson
7 siblings, (6 living) plus 1 unofficially adopted
my wife has 9 siblings (6 living)
My wife and I combined have 54 nieces and nephews (that does not count the 4 double which in essence are niece and nephew to both of us. You see, my wife likes to tell people her husband's sister married her sister's husband and yes it is all legal even by conservative Mennonite standards. :)
1st cousins, I have relatively few as both my father and mother came from pretty small families for their culture at that time. I have 34. My wife came from an even smaller extended family with only 22 I believe. 2nd cousins? :shock: Oh my! I have never counted them but I would be very surprised if it was under 250 and that is only counting the almost 45 or so once that I could technically count twice as they are my double second cousins.

I can safely say that if I were to count all of my third cousins it would be in the thousands. plural.

Oh and our family presently has one hedgehog.
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Peregrino
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by Peregrino »

Me- 10 siblings, 86 first cousins
Wife- 9 siblings, 9 step-siblings, +-75 first cousins
8 children
1 dog
2 pigs
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ShantyShaker
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by ShantyShaker »

Oldest of 5 siblings
We have 8 living children, we lost an infant in Feb.
I have 50+ first cousins on both maternal and paternal sides

My dad was part of 101 grandchildren on his maternal side. There were 3 great-great grands before both great-great grandparents were gone.

On dad's paternal side I have no idea on the number of first cousins, but his dad was the youngest of 19 children.
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Josh
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by Josh »

I have 2 brothers and 3 cousins, 1 is deceased whom I have never met.

I also have an adopted sister. I had two foster brothers, but they moved away before I was old enough to remember then.

It's hard for me to fathom growing up with a big family or growing up with cousins. (When we lived in Australia my cousins lived in the U.K. We saw each other once or twice by the one I was 10 years old.)
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Hats Off
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by Hats Off »

Talking about cousins and second cousins, one of my daughters went to a conference in Pa. with a friend from Pa. There was no Mennonite church close to where they were so they went to a small rural church in the neighbourhood where they were spending the week. The older ladies were very gracious to these young women and when they found out that my daughter was a Canadian, they made sure she talked with the only other Canadian woman at the church. The lady said "I think we are related!" Turns out she is my second cousin on both my mother's side and on my father's side.

Josh, I cannot comprehend a family situation like yours. One of my wife's aunts is married to my uncle so there we have 9 double first cousins. Two of my sister's children are married to two of my wife's sister's children. We have 107 nieces and nephews besides their marriage partners. I don't have time to try to count our first cousins, let alone second cousins. Some of you may have heard of the program, "Mennonite your Way" where you can travel across the country spending every night with other Mennonite families. We could probably work our way to the west coast and back by visiting first and second cousins every night of our journey.
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RZehr
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by RZehr »

I have 12 siblings, my wife has 10 siblings.
So far we have 5 children and 68 nieces and nephews, without being "quiver full" believing.
One steer, one hog, one Buffalo, or American Bison, a few cats.
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Josh
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by Josh »

RZehr wrote:I have 12 siblings, my wife has 10 siblings.
So far we have 5 children and 68 nieces and nephews, without being "quiver full" believing.
One steer, one hog, one Buffalo, or American Bison, a few cats.
Wow.

Most unchurched people don't have family set ups like that. What are the best ways for our churches to relate well to such people?
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MaxPC
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by MaxPC »

We come from large families. My wife had 7 siblings, all older and now all have passed. I had 5 siblings, all older and all have passed.

7 children living, 23 grandchildren. 5 great grandchildren.

All are blessings to us.
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RZehr
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by RZehr »

Josh wrote:
RZehr wrote:I have 12 siblings, my wife has 10 siblings.
So far we have 5 children and 68 nieces and nephews, without being "quiver full" believing.
One steer, one hog, one Buffalo, or American Bison, a few cats.
Wow.

Most unchurched people don't have family set ups like that. What are the best ways for our churches to relate well to such people?
I don't know, you probably know a lot better than I do.

Some of the things I've learned:
- Holidays. Many NMB members don't have a large family to celebrate with. Maybe consider skipping our own family holidays, in favor of spending the day with them.
- Converse during the week. They need someone to share with. Learning to understand each other only comes by spending time talking.
- Economics. When you come from a large family, I believe you have a economic advantage along with the many other advantages. Share your stuff like you would your family making them feel welcome in doing so.

Myself, my biological brother, and a NMB brother need housing 3 hours from here. My Uncle helped my biological brother find a property with two homes on it, which means we only need to find one more house.
I could rent the second home for about $500 per month. I also will have steady income over there, while my NMB brother will be starting a new business. There is another suitable house for rent on the open market for $1,550 per month. So what my biological brother suggested is that we three each pay the average cost of the three houses, that way none of us is penalized, and we can each use the house that fits us best.
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Josh
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Re: Who has the most siblings? children?

Post by Josh »

RZehr wrote:I don't know, you probably know a lot better than I do.
Well, I don't have a lot of experience with solutions - I just can see problems. I like the fact you wrote about solutions in your response.
Some of the things I've learned:
- Holidays. Many NMB members don't have a large family to celebrate with. Maybe consider skipping our own family holidays, in favor of spending the day with them.
- Converse during the week. They need someone to share with. Learning to understand each other only comes by spending time talking.
These are really good things, and most of us should probably be doing these things with our church brotherhood anyway - instead of just doing them with our own family. Our own families don't necessarily need skipped - we just need to include other people in the church in them, especially people who don't have Anabaptist families interested in spending time with them in God-honouring ways.
- Economics. When you come from a large family, I believe you have a economic advantage along with the many other advantages. Share your stuff like you would your family making them feel welcome in doing so.

Myself, my biological brother, and a NMB brother need housing 3 hours from here. My Uncle helped my biological brother find a property with two homes on it, which means we only need to find one more house.
I could rent the second home for about $500 per month. I also will have steady income over there, while my NMB brother will be starting a new business. There is another suitable house for rent on the open market for $1,550 per month. So what my biological brother suggested is that we three each pay the average cost of the three houses, that way none of us is penalized, and we can each use the house that fits us best.
That's a really good way to think about things and do things, and happens to coincide how I am trying to do things with 2 brethren. Basically, we all have a car, and all of us need to keep repairing our cars. Some of us have a lot more money than others (and it has varied over the last year just who is making the most or the least money). So we have all helped each other out with getting cars to/from places to be fixed, let each other use each others' cars, and if someone is short on money, offered to help them get their car fixed.

In most cases the person who needed the help decided not to spend the money - but the psychological effect is huge to know someone is willing to help you out. It has knit us a lot closer, and reduced the crushing stress we feel when we can't make ends meet.
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