This Married Couple Of 60 Years Have One Hundred Grandchildren

Making a marriage work is not easy, but making a marriage work for well over 60 years is a feat in itself. When you add in children and grandchildren, their spouses and some great-grandchildren, it can all get a bit muddled together. For one American family, they have an extended family equal to the size of a small town, and that is just their direct descendants. For Leo and Ruth Zanger they have quite the family in terms of sheer numbers. While the two have been married for well over 60 years and have produced their own children, the number of grandchildren they have actually comes in at over 100. Can you imagine what the holidays must look like for them! It is a good thing that Leo has maintained a successful real estate business all these years simply so that he can help provide housing for all of the family while finding properties big enough to hold them all for social events. Let’s take a look at how this one big happy family has grown over the years.

Beginnings

Ruth and Leo did not set out with the intention to have such a huge family, how can anyone really plan for that? They met in the 1950s due to a blind date that their siblings, Leo’s brother Dale and Rosie, who was Ruth’s sister, set up. It seems like it was love at first sight, and the two quickly got married in April of 1956.

They chose Illinois as their home state and decided to start having children right away.

Their First Child

Their first child was a girl, who they named Linda. She arrived the same year they were married. But, Ruth and Leo wanted a big family so one daughter was not enough. They continued having children until they eventually maxed out at a whopping twelve sons and daughters and they had their last son in 1984. At this point, the age gap between some of their children was so big that they had gotten married and begun their own families.

All in all, they had three daughters and nine sons. With twelve of their own children, it was no wonder they ended up with over a hundred grandchildren collectively.

Uncles and Aunts

The age gap was so big between Joe, the youngest and his eldest siblings that when he finally entered the world as the last son, he already had nieces and nephews of his own. In fact, he was younger than ten of them. It must have been nice to have nieces and nephews around his age to grow up with, even if he was their uncle.

One would think that it would have been complete mayhem at any family gathering, or even just in the house growing up. It took a lot of fine tuning, and sibling bonding to find the right rhythm for everyone to get along.

Money Money Money

Raising a gigantic family is not a cheap endeavor, and as the children got older and started to find their own independence it became clear that they would need some financial assistance. But how were Leo and Ruth going to be able to support them all? Leo had a solution. Since he already owned his own business – Zander & Associates, Inc.

He told his children that if they wanted to join the family business and learn how to be realtors than they were more than welcome to. So that is what quite a few of them did, with some still working for his company now.

The Arrival of Grandchildren

It was not until 1975 that the first granddaughter came into the picture. This would mark the beginning of the mass amount of grandchildren to come. As the grandchildren came of age, they too got married and began their own families, making the number of descendants simply skyrocket to epic proportions. It was in 2015 that the matriarch and patriarch of the Zanger family finally welcomed the hundredth member of their clan.

This was something of a crowning achievement for a family that always valued offspring and the bond created by lineage. Family gatherings were now officially the size of town fairs.

Blessed

Leo and Ruth felt incredibly blessed by the fact that they had been able to have such a large and healthy family. By the time they reached the number 100 in their line, they had grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandchild. In order to make up the full 100, the ratio of grandchildren all the way to thier great-great-grandchildren was 53:46:1.

That is an impressive figure, but it must have led to some confusion when it came to sussing out how everyone was related.

Record Keeping

Keeping a head count is no easy feat in this family, which is why one family member has taken it upon herself to keep documentation of every birth, marriage, and death in the family. Donna, Ruth and Leo’s daughter, keeps meticulous records so that there are exact numbers of how big the family is.

When their birthdays are and any other important information that the collective families might need to know about. Everything is recorded for accuracy.

Due Diligence

Donna is actually the one who reported the fact that Ruth and Leo had reached 100 descendants and it was all due to her impeccable record keeping. It was Jaxton Leo Zanger, Ruth and Leo’s great-grandson who got the title of a 100th descendant in the Zanger line.

His birth also fell in the year of the clan’s founding members 59th wedding anniversary which made it all the more special for them. Two happy events to celebrate.

Jaxton’s Birth

Jaxton’s birth was not automatically celebrated as the 100th grandchild. In fact, it actually took Donna three months to notice that is how many grandchildren there now were as she poured over her records. When she informed the newborn’s parents, grandchild Austin and his wife Ashleigh they quickly realized how momentous this was for the family.

The entire clan was beyond thrilled with this familial achievement. Ashleigh, even though an honorary Zanger by marriage, was extremely proud to have brought forth this important member.

The Baby Race

While Jaxton got the honorary title of the 100th grandchild, he was not the only one in the proverbial baby race trying to grab the title. Another member of the Zanger clan was supposed to be born around the same time, in fact, that due date was slightly earlier than the April Jaxton was born in.

However, it is ultimately the baby who decides when they are ready to enter the world and Jaxton decided to win the race!

Family Admin

Donna is not only in charge of keeping the family tree up to date but also with making sure that she has all of the phone numbers, emails, and addresses for each and every one of the extended family members. She loves being the gatekeeper to all of the information regarding the family.

This means she gets to plan get-togethers and keep everybody informed of what the clan is up to. This does mean that she is often in charge of making sure everyone is where they need to be, but she doesn’t mind.

Personal Anecdotes

Donna is not the only family member though who holds some important pieces of information. While she may be one of the original members, it is her parents who hold the stories from when she and her brothers were born, and as they grew up.

Leo and Ruth both have personal anecdotes that they love to share with their children about some of the pivotal points in their lives, such as when Donna herself was born. She was born during a bad blizzard in 1962.

Family Gatherings

When it is time to have a gathering or celebrate a small family event, even just a dinner, the numbers are always at least ten or more. With a family, this size, having a small intimate dinner is nigh on impossible.

Everyone has a partner, and children that have to be accounted for, so it is always a bit of trial getting everyone sorted. And on top of that, nobody wants to feel like they have been left out.

Homegrown

Most of the family still lives in Illinois, specifically Quincy which is where Leo and Ruth decided to put down permanent roots. This means that if someone is having a family get together that the whole horde tends to show up unless they have some sort of prior engagement with someone outside of the family.

Yet, they all maintain a close-knit bond which is really admirable considering just how many of them there are.

Holidays

There are specific holidays though, which Leo and Ruth’s sons and daughters have to attend. These include the major holidays that most families like to spend together such as Christmas and Thanksgiving.

In general, the family will find any excuse to see each other and sit down and have a heart to heart so there is no arm twisting here to get them to come over. This family loves nothing more than catching up and sharing a good meal.

Logistical Nightmare

As you might imagine finding room for the entire family can be difficult at times which means they often have to find venues that can host a family of their size. Usually, they like to rent the recreation room at the church in one of their neighborhoods.

They also have to make sure everyone is fed so each family is in charge of bringing a part of the meal. It has turned into something of a competition to see who is the best cook.

One Big Happy Family

It has been hard in the past for the spouses to get used to the family dynamic, but over time the entire family has come together and formed the cohesive unit they are now. There is no tension, as they all share a respect for each other and are good communicators.

As of 2018, there are officially 102 grandchildren and the clan simply keeps on growing. Who knows how many there will be. This is one big happy family!

The post This Married Couple Of 60 Years Have One Hundred Grandchildren appeared first on Vandar.info.