The birth of River Green five weeks ago has meant great great grandmother Joyce Carroll can pose for a family photograph that spans five generations.
The family, with Joyce at 89 the oldest, all at one point lived or still live in March, and say they can’t find a family in the region as big as theirs.
Joyce of Jubilee Court, March, got to hold five-week old River, who is her great great granddaughter, at a family gathering in the town last weekend.
Mrs Carroll moved to the area from Surrey after the last war. At one point she ran the former Bulls Head pub in St Neots before moving to Peterborough for work.
The family came to March when Mrs Carroll’s daughter, Sheila Tegerdine, moved to the town to be with her husband Stanley in 1969.
Since then, Sheila’s 48-year-old daughter Marion Whitehead gave birth to her 26-year-old daughter Natalie Green who just five weeks ago gave birth to her baby daughter, River.
The family tree now stretches from 89-year-old Joyce Carroll to five-week old River Green – making it quite possibly one the largest spread families in Fenland.
Sheila, who has now retired to Snettisham, said: “We don’t know anyone with families as big as this, we’ve only found ones with four generations, but there has got to be more out there.
“I think over time families will get smaller because children are getting married later and they’re having children later so I think if families reach three generations, they’d be lucky.”
The family came together to celebrate a plethora of milestones, including a 70th birthday and a golden wedding anniversary, where they posed for a snap at the Two-Ten restaurant in March.
Natalie said: “It’s lovely having the support from women in my family who have all done it [been parents]. It’s nice for me to have them as well as for River to have what I had.
“I think in the future generations won’t be as big, larger families are more expensive for a start. There is less pressure on people to become mums these days.”
Sheila added: “In mum’s time [Joyce] it was hard. I can remember times when we were little feeling very hungry. My mum and dad had it tough, very tough. But they got through it.”
The family are now looking forward to a busy, but expensive year of anniversaries and celebrations to enable them to spend more time together as five generations.
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