Mother-of-eight Mary Marshall boasts a whopping 90 grandchildren and the the family stretches from the 86-year-old to the youngest member who is just a couple of weeks old. A pensioner has become a great, great, great grandma with six generations alive at the same time.
Mother-of-eight Mary Marshall, 86, – who was born four years before the start of the Second Wᴏʀʟᴅ Wᴀʀ. The family, stretches from Mary to youngest member Nyla Ferguson, who is just a couple of weeks old. All the women are on the same side of the family – and except new mum Toni-Leigh work, or worked, as carers for the NHS. They gave birth aged 18 or younger – resulting in this super-sized family – and live in or around Edinburgh, Scotland. Mary’s eldest Rose Thorburn, 68, has four children including mum-of-three Chyrel Borthwick, 50. Chyrel gave birth to mum-of-four Carrie Dow in 1986. Carrie, 35, has four children, including the latest mum Toni-Leigh Aitken, 17.
And on May 25, Mary earned herself the title of Scotland’s only great-great-great grandma with the birth Nyla. Due to the size of her family, Mary, from Edinburgh, says she is forgiven for not buying each and every member a birthday and Christmas present as she’d spend ‘half the year doing so’. Mary said: “I’m a lucky woman to be honest with you. It’s great to have such a big family. There’s always someone there looking out for you. I’m incredibly happy.”
New mum Toni-Leigh, who gave birth to the newest member of the family last month, said: “When we found out I was pregnant we did make a joke about us breaking some sort of record. Then we started looking into it and it doesn’t look like anyone else has our family set-up. 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! We live no longer than a 10-15minute drive away from one another so we see each other. We haven’t had a big do with the entire family since the pandemic but when we do it’s great fun! There’s 90 grandchildren now with Nyla so it’s always pretty loud!”
Rose, 68, said: ” It’s great when you have a new baby. I’m one of eight so I’ve always had a big family in some sense. But now we’re pretty big! I haven’t heard of any other family of this size in Scotland. Whenever we get together there’s always fun and laughs. There’s always someone there for you.” The family are believed to be the only family in Scotland with six generations alive at the same time.
