Manasseh and Madeline - family statistics

Madeline Ward nee Henderson gave birth to 14 children in 20 years. Her first born was Josephine, the daughter of Joseph Keele, who died in a scarlet fever epidemic before his daughter was born. All indications are that when Madeline married Manasseh Ward in 1877, Josephine was accepted as a full member of the Ward family and was routinely called Josephine Ward.

When Joan Taylor did her landmark family history, she did not include Josephine as one of the children, but when my version finally gets printed, I plan to include her. (I think Manasseh would approve.)

Of Manasseh and Madeline's children:

• All but three of the children outlived their parents, and those three, all boys, died in infancy.
• Of the 11 children who survived to adulthood, nine married.
• Josephine had three children;
• Madeline jnr had five children;
• William had eight children;
• Robert had six children;
• Roy did not marry;
• Ephraim had three children;
• Amy did not marry;
• Eric had nine children;
• Pat had six children;
• Doris had four children;
• Bruce had two children.
• That makes 46 grandchildren.
• There were 10 marriages, because Ephraim remarried after his first wife died. 
• There was only one divorce and that was Josephine, who was divorced by her husband in England.
• 32 grandchildren and one great-grandchild were born in Manasseh's lifetime. The great-grandchild was Marjory Law
• The only grandchild to pre-decease Manasseh was William's son and Manasseh's namesake,  Manasseh William Ward who died aged six in 1916.
• 44 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren were born in Madeline's lifetime.
• Only two grandchildren were born after Madeline's death, and as I write this, they are both still alive. I am not aware of any other grandchildren that are still alive, but there are three other grandchildren that I don't have a death date for, so it is possible.

I have extended my website this week to make provision for adding a profile on each of the children. There are draft profiles for Josephine and Bruce there already, as well as a page for the three little boys who died as babies. There is also a blank document for each of the others, which I will flesh out when the time comes. You can access the profiles from Manasseh and Madeline's page.

Thanks to my cousin Christine for her extensive research into Josephine - she has uncovered an interesting, if sometimes sad story of the girl who grew up in Kincumber and Gosford and went on to appeared in silent films and grace the Broadway stage. Christine has a lot more detail than I have included in by little summary and she tells me that you can watch several of Josephine's silent movies on Youtube!