He jokes that their family “could start their own town.”
Some families can get pretty big. But I doubt you’ll find a family bigger than this one from Illinois.
This family has so many grandkids that the picture frames can barely fit on their walls!
Meet Leo and Ruth Zanger of Illinois, who’ve been married for 66 years and have 100 grandkids.
Yes, 100 grandkids. That’s a lot of kids to keep track of, and I don’t blame you for doing a double-take at that header.
Their 100th grandchild was born in 2015, after years of anticipation.
When they realized the number of grandkids they had was 99, it became a bit of a race to see which of their kids would birth number 99.
Technically, not all of the kids are “Grandchildren” properly. Some of them are great-grandchildren. But when you’re around long enough to have this many, the distinction doesn’t matter as much.
Baby number 100’s name is Jaxton Leo Zanger. He’s the 46th great-grandchild.
It really begs the question of who’s keeping count.
In fact, if I was one of the grandparents, I might end up forgetting people’s names.
At least my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren can’t blame me for that.
I mean, how many people do you know have 53 grandchildren alone?
But wait, 53 grandchildren and 46 great-grandchildren only make 99. That other one? That’s a great, great-grandchild. Yeah, it keeps getting crazier, doesn’t it?
It started when Leo and Ruth had 12 children of their own.
Already, that’s more than most people ever plan on having. But I suppose they wanted a big family.
27 years separated their eldest child from the youngest.
Their eldest child, who’s now over 60, already had kids of his own before his youngest sibling was born. So the youngest sibling was born an uncle already.
Crazy how that works, huh?
Needless to say, family gatherings are one heck of an occasion.
For most gatherings, they have to rent out a church building because it’s the only thing that can fit all of them.
“When we get together, it’s big. It’s really big.” – said Donna Lane, one of Leo and Ruth’s daughters
At least with this large of a family, having everyone chip in isn’t an issue.
There’ll hardly be a boring or empty dinner night for the Zangers.
“There are a lot of people — a lot of kids — but that’s what it’s all about. We always have a really good time.” – she continued
It’d be pretty hard to get everyone to attend if they lived in different states. Thankfully, most of the family lives in Illinois. Could you imagine having hundreds of relatives in different states and trying to invite them all to dinner?
Leo acknowledges that their family probably isn’t stopping at 100.
“I expect there will be more. It wouldn’t surprise me any because there are a lot of young families there yet that are just getting started.”
He jokes that their family “could start their own town.”
I don’t doubt him one bit.
Well, that future child is in for a big surprise whenever they’re born.
In the meantime, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgivings, and New Year’s are never dull for the Zangers.
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