Mother-of-eight Mary Marshall has a phenomenal 90 grandkids, with the oldest being 86 years old and the youngest being only a few weeks old. With six generations alive at the same time, a retiree has become a great, great, great-grandma. Mother-of-eight Mary Marshall, 86, has an astounding 90 grandchildren despite being born four years before World War II began. Mary Ferguson is the oldest member of the family, while Nyla Ferguson, the youngest, is just a few 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. Rose Thorburn, Mary’s eldest daughter, has four children, including Chyrel Borthwick, 50, a mother of three. Carrie Dow, a mother of four, was born to Chyrel in 1986. Carrie, 35, is the mother of four children, the youngest of whom is 17-year-old Toni-Leigh Aitken.
And on May 25, Mary earned herself the title of Scotland’s only great-great-great grandma with the birth of 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 its great fun! There are 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 is believed to be the only family in Scotland with six generations alive at the same time. According to Guinness World Records, the most generations alive in a single-family have been seven.
Mary Marshall, 86, b.June 1935
Rose Thorburn, 68, b. October 1952
Chyrel Borthwick, 50, b. July 1970
Carrie Dow, 35, b. February 1986
Toni-Leigh Aitken, 17, b October 2003
Nyla Ferguson, b. May 2021
