When I think multiples in genealogy, I think TWINS!
Week 9: Multiples
I remember a moment before I got interested in genealogy when my maternal grandparents, who were living with us, showed me a piece of paper with a list of children’s names on it. At the time, the names were mostly meaningless to me. But a few things about this list stood out to me!
1) It was a long list! I couldn’t understand how someone could have that many children (I still can’t.)
2) There were twins listed – three sets of them! Twins have always fascinated me. Oddly, 3 people that I work with in my department right now are twins (last year there were 4) – that seems like a lot, considering there are only 15 people in my department.
3) One of the babies in a different lot, Benjamin David, listed toward the bottom of the form was born absurdly large! It weighed in at a whopping 17 pounds. Sadly, it did not survive past birth.
See the paper below! The 3 sets of twins are listed under the ‘Grandparents’ section.
Raymond Lee Millhouse, “Mom’s Family Tree,” undated, privately held by Raymond Millhouse’s granddaughter Kira D. Foltz.
Of course, now looking at this sheet of paper, I understand so much more about what I’m looking at. I also care so much more about what I’m looking at. And I curse the day I was shown this as a high schooler and didn’t ask follow-up questions! Because, I have so many now.
My family had always said the common phrase “Twins run in the family.” But I have to say before seeing this sheet of paper, I didn’t actually believe them -- considering I had never met a twin in our family. So, if they ran in our family, where were they? Everyone thought my sister and I were twins, because we looked so much alike, but we had more than a 2 year age difference!
Beatrice Anna (Millhouse) Foltz, photo of Gary Jon Foltz reading to daughters Brittany Elise Foltz (left) and Kira Dawn Foltz (right), January 1990, Gardena, California, USA, privately held by Kira D. Foltz.
Turns out, they had run in the family, but a couple generations back, and this strip of paper was the proof! They were all born to my 3rd great grandparents, Ann Eliza (McCann) and Robert Jordan Williams, pictured below.
Black and white digital photo of Robert Jordan Williams and Ann Eliza (McCann) Williams, ca. 1930, Ancestry (https://ancestry.com : accessed 28 Feb 2021); uploaded by user Fox_RobertM.
My 2nd great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Williams, was one of the sets. Benjamin was born 15 March 1876 in Glen Easton, Marshall County, West Virginia along with his twin, Harmon/Hiram S Williams. The “S” likely stood for Sylvester, a family name. And their brothers, Harvey and Harry, were also twins born a year later (sadly, Harry died as a baby). And their sisters, Susan and Effie, were also twins born a few years later in 1881. You’d think with such a unique brood, I’d have more photos for this branch of the family, but I really don’t have many at all – and none that feature any of the twins together!
Here’s the photo I have of my 2nd great grandfather – one of the “multiples”:
Photo of Emma Virginia (Diamond) Williams and Benjamin Franklin Williams, Powhatan, Ohio, ca. 1940, in personal possession of descendant Kira D. Foltz.
On the paternal side of my family, there is also a singular set of twins that I know of — my great grandmother Myrtle May Mill’s siblings. Rumor has it her sisters Mamie & Minnie were actually a part of a quadruplet birth, however, the birth registration record I’ve been able to recover claims they were triplets (the 3rd being a boy who died during birth).
Photo of Mamie Garfield Mills and twin Minnie Grant Mills, in possession of descendant Mary Anwar.
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