Baby Jaxton Leo Zanger, born April 8, is Leo and Ruth Zanger’s 100th grandchild.
Technically, baby Jaxton is the Illinois couple’s 46th great-grandchild. They also have 53 grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
To Leo and Ruth, each grandchild is as loved and welcomed as if it were their first. “Birth is a miracle and to have a new one is just a wonderful thing,” Leo said.
The proud grandparents have been married for 59 years.
You might be wondering, how many children must one have in order to have 100 grandchildren?
For the Zangers, it was 12: their oldest child is 58 years old and the youngest, 31-year-old Joe, was already an uncle to 10 kids by the time he was born.
“We just love them all and they’re all so precious,” said Leo Zanger, who calls his newest family member “another precious little bundle.”
The family is tightly-knit and finds excuses to get together often, with unofficial ‘mandatory’ gatherings on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day.
“We’re all really close. We get together a lot,” said Austin, baby Jax’s father and one of Leo and Ruth’s many grandkids.
Due to their huge size, no one has a house large enough to accommodate the family, so they have to rent out the local church hall for dinners. Here are just some of the grandkids:
As for the food? It takes 50 pounds of ham or 10 turkeys to feed this many stomachs.
“When we get together, it’s big. It’s really big,” said Donna Lane, the oldest grandchild at 39 years and the unofficial family historian. “There are a lot of people — a lot of kids — but that’s what it’s all about. We always have a really good time.”
Their closeness could also be attributed to the fact that most of them live near Quincy, Illinois, where Leo’s real estate agency is based. He employs four sons, one daughter and two daughters-in-law.
Leo, who is 79 years old, said that two of his grandchildren were having a “fun little competition” as to who would give birth to the family’s 100th grandchild: “There was one born in March and it was kind of a race, so this has all been really fun.”
Having such a big family is a blessing for the couple. “The good Lord has just kept sending them,” Leo said.”We could start our own town.”