A 98-year-old woman with 230 great-great-grandchildren met her great-great-great-grandchild for the first time in a photo that shows six generations sitting in the same room.
MaeDell Taylor Hawkins, who is 98 years old and from Kentucky, got married when she was 16 to a railroad worker who was 50 years old and already had 10 children from a previous marriage.
A source says that the couple then had 13 children of their own. Hawkins became the head of the family after her husband’s first wife died during childbirth.
She raised the kids without things that we take for granted today, like running water, indoor toilets, electric stoves, washing machines, radiators, and window insulation.
Gracie Snow Howell, who is Hawkin’s granddaughter, said:
She took care of everybody. I’ve never heard my mom say anything about hearing her complain.
The news source says that when Hawkins’ biological and step-descendants are added up, she is related to 623 people.
The 98-year-old has 106 grandchildren, 222 great-grandchildren, 234 great-great-grandchildren, and 37 great-great-great-grandchildren.
This is helped by the fact that many of Hawkins’ children had kids when they were 19 instead of waiting until later in life, which is what most people do now.
The family got together for a get-together, which was captured in a picture of six generations.
Hawkins had held “hundreds of babies” in her life, but she met her great-great-great grandchild for the first time when her family came from all over the US to see her. It turned out to be an all-female trip, which wasn’t planned.
Howell said that the family’s newest member, Zhavia, was born in December.
Sharing the image to Facebook, Howell wrote:
SIX (living) generations. MaeDell, Frances, Gracie, Jacqueline, Jaisline, and Zhavia.
The picture has gotten a lot of attention on social media because it is rare for so many generations of the same family to be in the same room at the same time.
The most generations alive in a single family has been 7. The great great great great grandparent being Augusta Bunge aged 109 years old https://t.co/qN0nfENOn4
— Hourly Fact Bot (@HourlyFactBot) June 2, 2021
The Guinness World Record for the most living generations is currently at seven, with Augusta Bunge, who is 109 years old, being the oldest living member of the seventh generation.
Along with Hawkins and Zhavia, MaeDell’s daughter Frances Snow, granddaughter Gracie Snow Howell, great-granddaughter Jacqueline Ledford, and great-great-granddaughter, Jaisline Wilson are in the picture that went viral.
Howell went on to say:
If anybody ever asked me what my favorite memory of Grandma is, it’s her tomato preserves. They were just the best.
Grandma showed me what to do on a video chat and I got to take her some tomato preserves. It went full circle.
Howell said that she would give the recipe to Zhavia’s great-great-great-grandmother and that Zhavia could one day make the same food as her great-great-great-grandmother.
Hawkins will turn 99 on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, and there is hope that she will soon have a picture with her other two great-great-great grandchildren.
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