A pensioner has become a great, great, great grandma with six generations alive at the same time. Mary Marshall, from Edinburgh, Scotland, has eight children with none of her daughters giving birth over the age of 18– who was born four years before the start of the Second World War – boasts a whopping 90 grandchildren.
Mary is the oldest family member, and Nyla Ferguson, who is only a little over a year old, is the youngest.
With the exception of Toni-Leigh, a new mother, all the ladies are related by blood and work for the NHS as caregivers.
Rose Thorburn, Mary’s oldest child, is a mother of four, including 51-year-old Chyrel Borthwick, a mother of three. Carrie Dow, a mother of four, was born in 1986 to Chyrel.
Carrie, 36, has four children, including the latest mum Toni-Leigh Aitken, 18.
And on May 25, 2021 Mary earned herself the title of Scotland’s only great-great-great grandma with the birth Nyla.
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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 year, 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 see each other because we are no more than a 10- to 15-minute drive apart. Since the epidemic, we haven’t had a large gathering of the complete family, but when we do, it’s a lot of fun!
“Nyla now has 90 grandchildren, so it’s always fairly loud!”
Rose, 69, 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 are believed to be the only family in Scotland with six generations alive at the same time.
