Russian Woman Gave Birth to 72

Before the Guinness Book of Records, there was Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (1896, W. B. Saunders) by George Milbrey Gould (1848-1922) and Walter Lyttle Pyle (1871-). They devote an entire chapter to prolificity. In 1853, peasant Iakov Kirilow, 70 years old, was presented to the Empress of Russia for having 72 children.. His first wife had given 57 children in 21 pregnancies; including three twins, seven triplets and four quadruplets. He remarried, and his second wife bore him 15 children: six twins and one triplet. Thus, he had 72 children in total, and amazingly, all were alive at the time of presentation.

It is hard to believe that, after more than a century, I am first to notice this, but those numbers simply do not add up. Those 3+7+4=14 tuplet pregnancies of his first wife total 6+21+16=43 children, so an additional 21-14-=7 pregnancies that resulted in single births bring the total number of children to 50, not 57. Either there were more pregnancies, more tuplets, or less children.

Note 1 (99): Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine: A family having multiple multiplets may be rare, but it is far from impossible

(99) Genealogical Record Most Children: https://www.tamurajones.net/GenealogicalRecordMostChildren.xhtml