Married for more than 60 years, this couple recently held their 100th grandchild in their arms
Large families can intimidate those who are not part of them, but it is also true that there are many who wish to have a big family. An extended, large family means that no one will be left alone on major holidays and there will always be an phone call from someone on grandpa's, uncle's or mum's birthday. No one feels left out. The Zanger family of Chicago is a good example of a "large family": Leo and Ruth Zanger, in fact, are grandparents to 100 grandchildren! So you can imagine how many people make up their family. The elderly couple was lucky enough to hold their hundredth grandchild in their arms recently.
via Facebook / Zanger Family of Quincy, Illinois
When Leo and Ruth Zanger's family gets together, it is an exceptional event which requires the reservation of a large parish hall in order to accomodate all those who turn up. One of the last times they saw each other for a large family reunion was in honor of the birth of Jaxton Leo, Leo and Ruth's 46th great-grandchild and the100th grandchild for the family. The baby belongs to Austin and his wife Ashleigh, the youngest members of the Zanger family.
With such a large family, one could easily imagine that most of the members would lose touch during the year, but this is not the case: the Zanger clan, in fact, almost all live in the Quincy, Illinois, and make sure they get together for special occasions throughout the year. Everyone knows what to do and what to bring to help make a family reunion a success: for example, Ruth and Leo's daughter, Donna, serves as the family's unofficial historian and is in charge of keeping track of all the important dates and informing all the members about the next family reunion. To feed this many people, they need to buy at least 10 turkeys and about fifty kilos of ham!
Ruth and Leo have been married for almost 60 years and had 12 children between 1956 and 1984: their eldest daughter Linda is now 65, while their youngest son, Joe, is 38. Come to think of it, when Joe was born in 1984 , he already had 10 nieces and nephews older than him!
The Zanger's are a special family, don't you think? Would you like to be part of such a large family?
