Woman Becomes One Of The Only Great-Great-Great-Grandmothers In The United Kingdom At 86 Years Old

Jun 23, 2021

Family is extremely important to a lot of people in the world. For one family in Scotland, family is everything. Their family is incredibly tight-knit and each member is very important to each other. One woman by the name of Mary Marshall is the oldest member of her family, and she has helped create six generations, who are all alive at the same time. The incredible woman has eight children of her own and as of June 15, 2021, has 90 grandchildren. Just imagine what their dinner table looks like during the holidays!

Luckily, the entire family is very close and love each other dearly. Although they have their ups and downs like every other family in the world, they have remained close over the years and do their best to visit each other, which is not too difficult since they all live in the same surrounding area. This way they are able to still see each other and keep their large family connected.

Their big family is not just a joyous celebration for the members, but for the country of Scotland as the Marshall family is the only known family in the country to have six living generations. In fact, they are the only known family across the United Kingdom to do so. They reached this milestone in May 2021 when the youngest member of their family was born. Although they haven’t beaten the Guinness World Record for most living generations in a single family yet, they are only one generation away from tying the record, and two away from beating it.

The Ever-Expanding Family

Mary Marshall is 86 years old and has eight beautiful children. Since her children have grown up, they have started expanding their family and collectively have given Marshall a whopping 90 grandchildren. Express UK reported that all of the women on the same side of the family have a lot in common, as they have all worked as carers for the NHS, with the exception of family member Toni-Leugh Aitken.

This family has grown so much in size thanks in part to all of the women having children at a pretty young age. They were all 18 years old or younger when they first gave birth. The super-sized family started when Marshall, who was born in June 1935, gave birth to her eldest daughter Rose Thorburn in October 1952. Thorburn then had four children of her own, including Chyrel Borthwick, who is 50 years old now.

This continued on for generations, resulting in the family continuing to grow and create new generations. Borthwick is a mother of three children, and gave birth to Carrie Dow in February 1986. With four children of her own, Dow also helped contribute to the ever-growing family, as her 17-year-old daughter Aitken had her own baby on May 25, 2021. Express UK reported that when this baby, Nyla Ferguson, was born, Marshall became Scotland’s only great-great-grandmother.

“It’s lovely to have a big family,” Marshall told STV News. “There’s always somebody there to help you.” Marshall continued to rave about her family and how much she loves them. “They really are good to me,” she said. “I’m a lucky woman to be honest with you. I really am.”

With such a large family, one might wonder what their holidays look like. According to the family, they all get along extremely well and love spending time together, but they go a bit easy with gift-giving when it comes time to celebrate special occasions and holidays together. “I fall out with them so I don’t have to buy them presents,” Marshall joked, explaining how she gets some slack for not buying every single person in the family a gift, as it would take quite a long time and a lot of money to do so.

According to Express UK, the whole family live in or around Edinburgh, Scotland, which makes it easier and much more possible for them to visit each other. Along with their strong bond and love for one another, this family has another reason to visit each other. They can now celebrate being record breakers as they are the only known family in Scotland to have six generations all alive at the same time. 

“When we found out I was pregnant we did make a joke about us breaking some sort of record,” Aitken said. “Then we started looking into it and it doesn’t look like anyone else has our family-set up.” The young woman went on to explain how the family has fallen in love with her newborn baby, and the fact that their family is still continuing to grow. “It’s a bit too early to see a resemblance to her great-great-great-grandma, but it was love at first sight when they met,” Aitken said.

The Guinness World Record for the most generations alive in a single family is seven, meaning that this family is pretty close to tying the record, and potentially one day surpassing it.

What did you think about this amazing story? How big is your family? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your loved ones, too!