From 1725 to 1765 she gave birth to 69 children
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the record for the number of children from one mother belongs to Valentina Vasilieva, the wife of the Russian peasant Fedor Vasiliev.
She lived 76 years and from 1725 to 1765 gave birth to 69 children – 16 twins, 7 triplets and 4 quadruplets. 67 of them survived infancy (one twin did not survive).
It is known that Fyodor Vasiliev was a peasant of the Shuysky District in Russia in the XVIII century (now a district of the Ivanovo Oblast, Russian Federation). But his wife got into the Guinness Book of Records. Valentina is considered to be the mother with the most children in history.
1 mother and 69 children:
4 × 4 = 16
7 × 3 = 21
16 × 2 = 32
—
27 births, 69 children.
The first mention of Fyodor Vasiliev’s children is found in the 1783 issue of The Gentleman’s Magazine (No. 53, p. 753, London). It says that this information, “although amazing, deserves full confidence, because it was transmitted by an English merchant from St. Petersburg directly to his relatives in England; he also mentions that the peasant will be presented to the Empress.”
The same figures are given in the work of I. N. Boltin on Russian history in 1788 and in the book by A. P. Bashutsky “Panorama of St. Petersburg” in 1834.
Some sources questioned the veracity of this information. Apparently, no one has seriously checked the source of this information, so it is unlikely that it will ever be possible to establish the truth.
Nevertheless, data on Vasiliev’s children are included in the Guinness Book of Records.
Interestingly, Fedor had even more children than his wife with her 27 births!
Vasiliev’s second wife gave birth to 18 more children – 6 twins and 2 triplets. Thus, Fedor Vasiliev was the father of 87 children, of whom at least 82 survived to adulthood.
Unfortunately, there are no reliable photos of the Vasiliev family. The photo in this article is often published as an illustration of this story, but there is no evidence that it depicts Fedor, Valentina and their children.
Although Valentina Vasilieva’s record number of children can hardly be considered an indisputable historical fact, it is quite possible that she had a genetic predisposition to hyperovulation. This increases the likelihood of having multiple pregnancies.
And from the biological point of view, a woman may well give birth 27 times in her life.
