Family is the single most important influence in a child’s life. From their first moments of life, children depend on parents and family to protect them and provide for their needs.
They are a child’s first teachers and act as role models in how to act and how to experience the world around them. In this article, we are going to look at 10 most unique families in the world.
10. Largest Family
Ziona Chana, born on 21 July 1945, is known for holding a world record as the head of the “world’s largest existing family” with 39 wives, 94 children, 14 daughters-in-law, 33 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild.
This worlds’ largest family of 181 members live in Baktawng village Mizoram, India. With so many people in the family, they can consume up to 200 pounds of rice and 130 pounds of potatoes per day. They all live in a 100-room building and support themselves with their own animals and crops. He’s also the leader of an Indian Christian sect and believes he will soon rule the world along with Jesus.
9. Most Prolific Woman
Only known as the wife of Feodor Vassilyev, a farmer from Shuya, Russia, she is officially recorded to have given birth to 69 children. According to a report sent to Moscow on February 27, 1782 by the Monastery of Nikolsk, between 1725 and 1765, Mrs.
Vassilyev gave birth to sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets, over 27 separate labours. The grand total is 69 children. Of the 69 children, the report noted that two of the children failed to survive their infancy.
8. Tallest Family)
According to the Guinness of World Records, the Zegwaard family has achieved the record as the tallest family in the world. This family of 5 has a staggering combined height of 33 feet, or an average height of 6 feet and 6 inches per person.
As verified in Weesp, Netherlands on October 13, 2019, Sjoerd Zegwaard, father, is 6 feet and 6.99 inches tall; Janneke Van Loo, mother, is 6 feet and 1.29 inches tall. Their three children: Dirk is 6 feet and 8.92 inches tall, Rinze is 6 feet and 11.22 inches tall, and Sjoerd is 6 feet and 7.58 inches tall.
7. Blue Skin Family
In 1820, Martin Fugate and Elizabeth Smith got married and settled near Hazard, Kentucky. They were both carriers of the recessive methemoglobinemia or met-H gene. As a result, four of their seven children exhibited blue skin.
Their children got married within the limited local gene pool, which resulted in many descendants of the Fugate family being born with met-H. Their descendants with the gene continued to live in the areas around Troublesome Creek and Ball Creek, eventually coming to the attention of the nurse, Ruth Pendergrass, and the hematologist, Madison Cawein.
Cawein treated the family with methylene blue, which eased their symptoms and reduced the blue coloring of their skin. Benjamin Stacy, born in 1975, is the last known descendant of the Fugate family to have been born exhibiting the characteristic blue color of the disorder.
6. Largest Monogamous Marriages
Glynn Wolfe, also known as Scotty Wolfe, born July 25, 1908, was a Baptist minister who resided in Blythe, California. He was famous for holding the record for the largest number of monogamous marriages.
He married 29 times and had approximately 40 children. His shortest marriage lasted 19 days, and his longest marriage lasted eleven years. Three of his marriages were to women he had previously divorced, and five of his marriages ended with the death of a spouse.
Wolfe’s final marriage was to Linda Wolfe, who also got married 23 times. Wolfe died in Redlands, California, 45 days before his 89th birthday. His body went unclaimed. None of the 29 women he legally married, and none but one of his children, attended the funeral service.
5. Oldest Living Family
After several research, the Guinness of World Records officially recognized the Donnelly family from the Country of Armagh, Ireland, as the world’s oldest family.
Composed of 13 siblings – eight brothers and five sisters – the family had a combined age of 1,072 years. When the family received the recognition in 2017, Sean was 93, Maureen was 92, Eileen was 90, Peter was 87, Mairead was 86, Rose was 85, Anthony was 83, Terry was 81, Seamus was 80, Brian was 76, Kathleen was 75, Colm was 73, and Leo was 71. The siblings attribute their long life to apples, Gaelic Football and plenty of hard work.
4. Six Fingers Family
The Da Silva family from Brazil are proud of the fact that fourteen members of their 23-strong clan were born with six fingers and six toes each.
Although most people born with additional fingers or toes will not be able to use them, the Da Silvas are unusual because all of their digits are fully functional.
Fondly known in their city as ‘The Family of Six,’ they believe their extra digits are an asset, rather than a hinderance. This genetic syndrome that causes people to be born with extra fingers and toes is called polydactyly. It affects 1 in 3,000 births, although the mutation is far more common in some parts of the world than others.
Number 3. Family of Daughters
Augustina Higuera born on September 23, 1987 in Paris, Texas, was only 15 years old when she gave birth to her first daughter. Fourteen years later, at 29 years old, she is twice married and has 14 daughters.
Although less thrilled that all her children are girls, she vowed to keep going until she has given her husband, Jose, a son. Unfortunately, on June 12, 2020, she passed away in a tragic accident when another vehicle crossed over the center line and collided head-on with the car that she was driving.
2. Multigenerational (Successful Family)
Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan Preacher in the 1700s. He was one of the most respected preachers in his day. He attended Yale at the age of thirteen, and later became the president of Princeton college.
He married his wife Sara in 1727 and they were blessed with eleven children. Every night when Mr. Edwards was home, he would spend an hour conversing with his family and then praying a blessing over each child. Jonathan and his wife Sarah passed on a great and godly legacy to their eleven children.
An American educator, A.E. Winship, decided to trace the descendants of Jonathan Edwards almost 150 years after his death. Jonathan Edwards’ legacy includes: 1 U.S. Vice-President, 1 Dean of a law school, 1 dean of a medical school, 3 U.S. Senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 60 doctors, 65 professors, 75 Military officers, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, 100 clergymen, and 285 college graduates.
1. Smartest Family
Chris Imafidon and his wifehave done an enviable work in training their children achieve academic excellence. Their oldest daughter, Ann-Marie, was already speaking six languages by the time she was 10 years old.
At 13, she became the youngest girl to pass A-level computing; and at 19, she became the youngest person to graduate with a masters degree from the University of Oxford.
Their second daughter, Christiana, was just 11 years old when she got accepted to study at the United Kingdom University. This made her as the youngest person to be accepted to study at an undergraduate level at any British university.
Their third daughter, Samantha, stunned everyone when she passed two high school-level mathematics and statistics exams at the very tender age of 6.
She went on to become the youngest girl in the United Kingdom to attend secondary school at the age of 9. Paula and Peter are twins and the youngest of five siblings. They became the youngest persons to have passed the University of Cambridge’s advanced mathematics exam.
