Illinois Couple Welcomes Their 100th Grandchild
For one Illinois family, there is no such thing as a small get-together. Since Leo and Ruth Zanger married over half a century ago, the couple has been busy welcoming multiple children and grandchildren. But now they have marked a significant milestone, the couple welcomed their 100th grandchild.
‘The good Lord has just kept sending them,’ Leo told the Quincy Herald-Whig of the grandchildren.
‘We could start our own town.’
Leo and Ruth Zanger of Quincy have 53 grandchildren, 46 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. The birth of great-grandson Jaxton Leo on April 8 made the number 100. The Zangers have been married 59 years and have 12 children. Their youngest child was already an uncle 10 times when he was born.
‘There’s always room for one more,’ Ruth said.
Ruth and Leo wanted a large family. The eldest, Linda, is 58-years old and the youngest is Joe, who is 31-years old. The others are, Debbie, Donna, David, Greg, Daniel, Mike, Steve, Chuck, Matt, and Ernie.
Most of the family lives in the Quincy area as reported by MSNBC. When they get together they have to rent a church hall and it takes 50 pounds of ham or ten turkeys to feed everyone. Although the Zangers say they have plenty of excuses to gather, unofficial “mandatory” gatherings are Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day.
‘We’re all really close. We get together a lot,’ Austin told the Whig.
“There’s always a lot of interaction. We spend a lot of time with each other. I know there are a lot of families half of our size who only get together maybe once or twice a year.” Austin said that he and his wife didn’t know that Jaxton would be the 100th grandchild until Donna, the unofficial family historian, told them.
“It’s pretty special — 100 grandkids, that’s a big deal,” Austin told the Whig. Ashleigh said she is extremely proud of being the mother of grandchild No.100.
The Zangers describe themselves as close-knit with, all of the grandchildren knowing Ruth and Leo and much of the family living in or near Quincy.
A family gathering usually consists of 50 pounds of ham or 10 turkeys, according to NBC. But the family has had a lot of time to hone a routine for supplies and duties. “It’s a very busy family, and we enjoy being around each other,’ Daniel told the Whig. ‘There’s never a dull moment. We always had a lot of fun growing up.”
Read another interesting story in the Inquisitr about a U.K woman who was told she could never give birth and now has 150 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
