Baby Makes 100 for Illinois Grandparents

Grandkids and great-grandkids, that is; Leo and Ruth Zanger 'love them all'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 27, 2015 8:48 AM CDT
Baby Makes 100 for Illinois Grandparents
In this April 17, 2015, photo, Leo and Ruth Zanger sit with their 100th grandchild, Jaxton Zanger, in Leo's real estate office in Quincy, Ill.   (Phil Carlson/The Quincy Herald-Whig via AP)

Jaxton Leo Zanger entered the world on April 8, making Leo and Ruth Zanger the happiest grandparents in the world—for the 100th time. "The good Lord has just kept sending them," Leo Zanger says, per the Quincy Herald-Whig. "We could start our own town." Jaxton is technically their 46th great-grandchild, but the couple from Quincy, Ill., had been hoping to reach the 100 mark by adding to the clan of 53 grandkids, 45 great-grandkids, and one great-great-grandchild they already had, Today.com reports. "There was one born in March and it was kind of a race [to get to 100]," Leo tells Today.com. "We just love them all." The Zangers, who recently celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary, have 12 children ranging in age from 31 to 58; Donna Lane, one of Leo and Ruth's daughters, serves as unofficial family historian and event planner.

And planning an event for the entire Zanger family is no small feat: The group congregates for five "mandatory" holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, and Father's Day—for which they order up to 50 pounds of ham or 10 turkeys, per the Herald-Whig. Because their size could violate fire codes, they typically rent out church halls for their get-togethers, notes Fox 13 Utah. In addition to every gathering morphing into a major bash, there's another benefit of such a large family: no petty competition among brothers and sisters. "We don't have issues with sibling rivalry because our parents encouraged us to work things out and be close," Lane tells Yahoo Parenting. But even though the Zangers are celebrating Jaxton's birth, they're ready to break that nice round number. "There's always room for one more," Ruth says, per the Herald-Whig. (Things are more dramatic for this famous large family.)

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