Meet the world's "greatest" grandma: Six generation family sets new world record.

Gladys Sweeting and her clan: Six generations of one family set a world record. (photo courtesy of worldrecordsacademy.org)
Gladys Sweeting and her clan: Six generations of one family set a world record. (photo courtesy of worldrecordsacademy.org)

Gladys Sweeting is not your average 91-year-old. Last month, she welcomed her great-great-great grandson into the world. That's not a typo.
Gladys and her family hold the world record for the most living generations in one family alive today, according to an announcement today by the World Records Academy.

There's Gladys, her 74-year-old daughter Pam, Pam's daughter 54-year-old Wendy, Wendy's 36-year-old daughter Lisa, Lisa's 19-year-old daughter Jessica and now Jessica son, Harry, born in May. That makes six living generations of one family, the most on record alive today.

"We feel so lucky to be six generations of one family," great-great grandma Wendy told The Sun. "People are stunned when we tell them about Harry's family tree."

Gladys' tribe, based in the U.K., is just one generation shy of holding the all-time world record. That was marked by a U.S. family who clocked in at seven generations in 1989. But Gladys' family isn't counting. They're just happy to have a healthy new addition.

A lot has changed since Gladys had her first child in 1935. Still a teenager, she had a home birth with the help of a midwife.


"[My husband] then went to work, leaving me with her to have the baby. In those days dads weren't encouraged to be there," she told the Sun. All of Gladys' seven children were born at home, without the aid of pain relief or even a telephone.

She lost her first child to measles when he was only a year, and another child to whooping cough. She also gave a daughter up for adoption to avoid scandal, after she was conceived through an affair with a solider during World War II.

Gladys' experiences as a young mother are in stark contrast with great-great-grandaughter Jessica. She gave birth to Harry last month in a hospital, surrounded by doctors, nurses and her husband. While Gladys' husband would announce the birth of a child by going door to door, Harry's birth was announced on Facebook.

But not everything has changed since Gladys became matriarch to 56 spawn including her great-great-great grandson. The entire clan lives within two miles of each other, which means they still get plenty of old-fashioned face time.

[Update: Lisa is 36 years old, not 34 as was first reported and the change has been made]

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