One of the things I find fascinating about researching ancestors is how the generations overlapped. You don’t see that too often these days – unless you are a Dugger or a practicing Mormon or just plain like lots and lots of kids.

Dr. John and Margaret, where this genealogy begins, only had seven children but spaced out. Having read how John would travel up and down the river doctoring, I assume the children were conceived when he was at home, thus explaining the gap in years between children. Anyway… when their youngest child, Rosanna, was born, their oldest daughter, Mary, had already given birth to the first three of her children.

I was reminded of this the other day while sending an email to a niece who has just started college. I am the eldest of six children, approximately 18 months or so apart except for a three year gap between the fourth and fifth children. My youngest sibling, Bob, is 11 years younger than I. When my daughter, Becky was born, he was 13 and very glad that he was no longer the youngest person in the family. Becky is now in her early 30’s (it always makes me shudder when I think of the number ndash; I can’t be that old) and has two children. Her brother, Jesse, is now in his late 20’s with two boys of his own. The first three of my grandchildren are all older than Bob’s two children. My granddaughter (the eldest of my grandchildren) is older than my #5 sibling, Eric’s, youngest.

Many of my grandparent’s generation and earlier had larger families than my generation. At what point did the “nuclear” family become defined as Mom, Dad and 2.5 children? Large multi-generational households are also a rarity and I wonder if that hasn’t been detrimental to society as a whole, but that’s a whole other philosophical topic.

How many others of my generation (I’m at the tag end of the boomer generation) came from large families?