From: CHRISTINE WILLOTT <christine.willott@btopenworld.com> > The list is rather quiet at present so on the way back from the Wakefield archives yesterday, we decided to suggest a competition. Family sizes in the past were large so who has got the family with the most children to any one set of parents? Step families are excluded. Then we thought who had the most girls in a family and who had the most boys?< I do a talk called "It's A Funny Old Genealogical World", comprising snippets and anecdotes, comical and bizarre, from parish registers, censuses, wills, MIs and other family history material from all over the UK but with a substantial Yorkshire content. I gave it recently to Janice's Ryedale FHG and if anyone wants to invite me to deliver it to their society, I think she will confirm it was much enjoyed! Anyway, one of the items I mention is this entry from the baptisms at Holy Trinity, Hull..... 20 July 1812:- Jane dau of Joseph & Mary MURRAY (N.B. This is the 28th child this man has had christened by two wives). This probably won't qualify for Christine's competition since Joseph Murray apparently had two wives. But, if true, his reproductive abilities must have been in fine fettle! BTW, Christine, could I suggest another competition? Who can produce an ancestor who not only appeared in every census from 1841-1911 but with ALL DETAILS CORRECT in every one? I can claim a great-grandfather, ANDREW YOUNG, who was born at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, in 1831 and who died at West Derby, Liverpool, while visiting a daughter, in 1911, aged 80. Andrew was a West Country weaver who went to Bradford for work and was enumerated in various places..... 1841 and 1851 - Frome, Somerset 1861 and 1871 - Twerton, Bath 1881-1901 - Bradford 1911 - Otley Unfortunately, I can't put him up for a competition because not all details were correct in every census. In 1851 he was inadvertently recorded as Arthur instead of Andrew and in 1901 and 1911 his birthplace was given as Frome, Somerset (where he lived as a boy) when in fact it was Wotton-under-Edge, Glos. I reckon this shows how even close family got details wrong in the censuses and how careful we need to be! Andrew completed the censuses himself from 1861-1891 and gave his correct birth place but in 1901 and 1911 he was living with married daughters, having been widowed, and their husbands were heads of the household and must have assumed Andrew had been born at Frome. He and his wife, SARAH MEAD, had at least 10 children that I have found. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE