How does it sound like you have nearly 100 children? Biologically, adults are made to feel drawn to the cute faces and round cheeks of babies, and some people don’t want to stop having the adorable faces around. You’ve heard of people who have 3 kids, 5, or maybe 7, but the families we’re about to show you are much bigger than the average.
1. The Zionas
Ziona was born in India at the age of 17 and married Zathiangi, his first wife. With 39 wives and 94 children, he has one of the largest living families. They can consume up to 200 pounds of rice and 130 pounds of potatoes a day with so many people in the family. They all live in a 100-room building and have their own animals and crops to support themselves. He is also the Indian Christian sect leader named Chana páwl and insists that he and Jesus will soon rule the world.
MIZORAM, INDIA – JANUARY 30: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) A family photograph of the Ziona family on January 30, 2011, in Baktawang, Mizoram, India. With a total of 181 members, this Indian family residing at Baktawng Village in India’s north-east state of Mizoram is probably the largest in the world. 67-year-old Ziona, who heads the family, lives in a four-storeyed purple mansion with his 39 wives, 94 children, and 14 daughters-in-law and over 40 grandchildren. His mansion called ‘Chhuanthar Run’, which means ‘The House of the New Generation’, is the biggest concrete structure in this hilly village of Baktawng, about 80 km from Aizawl, the capital city of Mizoram. There are more than 100 rooms inside the Ziona mansion. (Photo by Richard Grange/Barcroft India/Getty Images)
2. The Bates
The Bates are a Tennessee Evangelical American family with 19 children. Once they decided to get married in 1987, parents Gil and Kelly Jo were only 22 and 21 years old. They never really wanted a big family, but they kept going because they loved holding babies after having their first baby a year later. They have expanded since then until their last baby was born in 2012. I also have 10 grandchildren and expect to receive 4 more in the near future.
3. The Hanns
Dundee’s probably the largest family in Scotland. Emma and Roy have 13 children between the ages of 2 and 25. Roy serves as a nurse practitioner, and Emma, 49, is a home mom stay who organizes the lives of her over 10 children who eat about 50 pints of milk, 21 loaves of bread, and 5 large cereal boxes per week.
4. The Radfords
When they were teenagers, Noel and Sue Radford met and didn’t wait long before they started a family. She was only 14 years old and he was 18 when their first son, Christopher, was welcomed into the world. They are Britain’s largest family with 21 kids, and one more on the way. There’s an angel, Alfie, who was stillborn, in their now 22 children. We even have a series of their own, 15 kids and counting.
The Radfords live in a large house in Morecambe, England, which used to be a nursing home and owned and run a prosperous bakery called Radford’s Pie Company.
5. The Duggars
Jim and Michelle met at Arkansas in 1980. As a member of the Baptist church, he paid her a visit after she announced her intention to change religions, and that’s when their love story started. Jim, 19, and Michelle, 17, were married four years later. They wanted to wait before they had boys, so in 1988 she gave birth to Joshua, her first baby boy. Half of them are homeschooled to this day they have 19 children and they are grandparents to 17 grandchildren as well.
We too caught the media’s eye and followed the Radford family’s footsteps with their own reality television show titled 19 Kids and Counting.
6. The Bonells
The Bonell family, consisting of mom, dad, and their 16 children, is one of Australia’s biggest families. Jeni, now in her fifties, at first did not want children, but her husband Ray had other ideas. The Bonell family now has 16 children between 4 and 29 years of age, including grandchildren, and they are happy to spend their days in Queensland. In case you were wondering how they do it all, Jeni revealed in an interview that when it comes to house chores and grocery shopping, everyone in the family pitches is done in bulk.
Would you come from a family that is large or small? Do you think your family’s size has influenced if any, the number of kids you’d like to have? Please tell us something
Preview photo credit Barcroft Media / Contributor / Getty Images
