Fyodor Wassiljew (farmer)

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Fjodor Wassiljew ( Russian Фёдор Васильев , scientific transliteration Fëdor Vasilʹev ; * around 1707 in Shuja ; † after 1782 ) was a Russian farmer and father of multiple births with his first and second wife. He is said to have fathered 69 children with his first wife. In the course of 27 pregnancies four times quadruplets, seven times triplets and 16 times twins were born.

The Nikolsky Monastery in Shuja, where the births were registered, instructed the government in Moscow on February 27, 1782. According to the report, Vasilyev married a second time and fathered another 18 children; this time, in eight pregnancies, two triplets and six twins were born. At the time of the report (1782), the 75-year-old Vasiliev was in "excellent health" and boasted of his 87 children. In 1783, the London Gentleman's Magazine reported on Vasilyev. Since Vasiliev is said to have fathered multiples with both his first and second wife, Gentleman's Magazine concluded that the extraordinary fertility was more likely due to him than to his wives.

Vasilyev's wealth of children also found its way into the Guinness Book of Records . However, the truthfulness of the reports has repeatedly been questioned in specialist publications. Julia Bell left the question open in Biometrika in 1933 as to whether the record should be recognized, referring, among other things, to an attempt at verification by the Paris Académie des Sciences from the 1870s. No usable results were obtained, as the representatives of the Académie were only told by the Russian Academy of Sciences that an investigation was superfluous, as family members still lived in Moscow.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Unparalleled Instance of Prolifickness . In: The Gentleman's Magazine . vol. 53, part 2, 1783, p. 753 ( Google Books ).
  2. ^ Mark C. Young: The Guinness Book of World Records . Bantam Books, 1998, ISBN 0-553-57895-2 , pp. 357 ( Google Books ).
  3. ↑ Julia Bell: Plural Births with a New Pedigree . In: Biometrika . vol. 25, no. 1/2 , 1933, p. 113 , JSTOR : 2332266 .
personal data
SURNAME Vasilyev, Fyodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Васильев, Фёдор (Russian spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian father of multiple births
DATE OF BIRTH around 1707
PLACE OF BIRTH Shuja
DATE OF DEATH after 1782