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Twins & Other Birth Multiples (Triplets, Etc.)

This thread seems to have missed the first story (in 2006) about these remarkable twins:

Closer than ever... The million-to-one black and white twins Kian and Remee turn seven
By Paul Harris and Lucy Laing
PUBLISHED: 21:54, 30 March 2012 | UPDATED: 23:12, 30 March 2012

One is black and has big brown eyes. The other is a blue-eyed blonde with the palest of skin.
They might share the same cheeky smile, but side by side, they could hardly look less alike.
Yet remarkably, Kian and Remee are twins, born a minute apart.

The pair owe their appearance to a one in a million combination of their parents’ genes.
Mother Kylee Hodgson and father Remi Horder both have white mothers and black fathers.
The startling result is a two-tone set of delightful little girls.

They first attracted international attention when they were featured in the Mail at less than a year old.
Now, approaching their seventh birthday, they have never asked why they don’t look the same, nor have they ever experienced any racial prejudice.
‘They are such a perfect example of how it should be,’ their mother told the Mail. ‘They are not bothered about their skin colour. It’s not the big issue everyone else seems to see it as. It isn’t important to them at all – it’s about what they’re like underneath.’

Kian and her 60-second older sister were delivered in April 2005 by caesarean section.
Kylee, now 25, recalls the moment she saw them for the first time: ‘I noticed that both of them had beautiful blue eyes,’ she said.
‘But while Remee’s hair was blonde, Kian’s was black and she had darker skin. To me, they were my kids and they were just normal. I thought they would start to look the same as time went on.’

Time, however, only accentuated their differences. Kian’s eyes changed colour and her skin got darker. Remee’s complexion got lighter and her curly hair stayed blonde. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kylee found herself fielding questions about whose children they were, or who Kian’s fair-haired friend was, when she pushed them in their side-by-side buggy.

‘People would ask me why I dressed the children the same,’ Kylee said. ‘I’d just say: “because they’re twins,” and leave people to work it out. 8) It kind of irritated me at first, but everyone in my area got to know they were twins and accepted it. It was only strangers or outsiders who didn’t know.’

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1qgwRdiXK
 
Identical twin's headaches lead to life-saving discovery of tumour

Brenton Gurney, 38, from Sydney, suffered a series of headaches but an MRI scan found nothing wrong, so he convinced his brother Craig to have a scan.

Craig's MRI revealed a brain tumour in the base of his skull. It has been removed in a 10-hour operation and he has safely recovered.
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etc

One of the readers' comments -

scientifically impossible, utter bunk, superstitious nonsense..
is this a newspaper or the fortean times ?
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:lol:
 
Maybe this should be in Disunited Kingdom.

Twins Dylan and Hannah born in England and Scotland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-18767549

Dylan (left) was born in England while Hannah was born in Scotland
A mother from Northumberland gave birth to twins less than two hours apart but in two different countries.

Donna Keenan, 28, gave birth to Dylan Joseph at about 22:00 BST on 1 July in the living room of her house in Wooler.

After being taken 40 miles by ambulance to Borders General Hospital in Melrose, Scotland, she gave birth to Hannah Rose at 23:39 BST.

The locations of the births mean the children have English and Scottish nationalities respectively.

Miss Keenan had just returned home from the hospital after a routine check.

She and her boyfriend, Joe Fox, 24, were watching the final of the Euro 2012 football tournament when she went into labour.

'Don't push'
She said: "I'd only been home for about an hour and a half and my water broke. My contractions started coming rather quickly.


Dylan was born almost two hours earlier than twin sister Hannah
"We had to ring a paramedic because we weren't going to make it to the hospital."

The paramedic asked Miss Keenan to lie on the living room floor because the first of the two babies was about to be born.

The mother-of-three said: "It was quite scary because we didn't know what was going to happen. The next thing I was on the floor and he was born at 10 o'clock."

Paramedics decided they had enough time to take Miss Keenan to the nearest hospital in Melrose for her to give birth to the second baby.

She said: "It felt like the longest journey ever. The hospital is about an hour away from Wooler and they kept saying to me 'don't push!'"

Meanwhile, Mr Fox and his mother had to keep newborn baby Dylan warm as they travelled in a second ambulance to the same hospital.

He said he had had a premonition that Miss Keenan might give birth earlier in the day.

He said: "It was my own fault, I joked that morning that Donna wasn't allowed to go into labour while the final was on."
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Twins' DNA hinders France sexual assault investigation
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21401200

Police have been told it would cost upwards of 1m euros to conduct an ultra-sophisticated genetic test

Police who are investigating a series of sexual assaults in the southern French city of Marseille have arrested identical twin brothers.

The 24-year-old unemployed delivery drivers, named locally as Elwin and Yohan, were placed under investigation on Friday.

Officers say they are sure that one of the two men carried out the attacks, but that they do not know which.

Standard DNA tests are unable to differentiate between their DNA.

CCTV footage
There have been six similar sexual attacks in Marseille on women aged between 22 and 76 between September 2012 and January 2013.

Police got a lead from CCTV footage on a bus, and as a result they arrested the twin brothers. A victim also identified one of them as her attacker, but could not tell them apart.

The problem is that the investigators do not know which of the two men is responsible for the assaults, or indeed whether it could be both of them, reports the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.

Traces of the DNA of the perpetrator - or perpetrators - have been found on the victims.

But this does not really help, our correspondent adds, because the DNA of identical twins is itself more-or-less identical.

Police have been told it would cost upwards of 1m euros (£850,000) to conduct an ultra-sophisticated genetic test that would be able to tell one set of the twins' DNA from the other.

One expert told the French newspaper La Provence: "For a normal analysis, we would compare 400 base pairs [of nucleotides] which make up DNA."

In the case of identical twins, he added, "We would be looking at billions."
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Happy birthday!

Ring-tailed lemur twins at Whipsnade Zoo turn 25
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-be ... s-21768085

Billy and Taffy, who have lived at Whipsnade Zoo for 15 years, have just turned 25

Two ring-tailed lemurs, a species which rarely lives beyond 20 years, have turned 25, a Bedfordshire zoo has confirmed.

Billy and Taffy have lived at Whipsnade Zoo for 15 years.

Keeper Steve Perry called it a "fantastic achievement" for the two animals to reach that age together, and credited their "laid back lifestyle".

The zoo said records showed the oldest single ring-tailed lemur ever to have lived reached 27.

Continue reading the main story
Lemurs

Lemurs are an old group of primates which evolved in near isolation after Madagascar split away from the African mainland.
They filled the ecological niches occupied by monkeys, the dominant primates, on mainland Africa.
Lemur size ranges from the world's smallest primate to - until fairly recently - some of its largest, the sloth lemurs, which rivalled gorillas in size.
Lemurs are named after the lemures (ghosts or spirits) of Roman mythology.
Source: BBC Nature
In the wild, ring-tailed lemurs are normally found in the dry forests and bush of southern and south-western Madagascar.

'Quite unique'
The species is listed as "near threatened" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as a result of hunting, habitat destruction and microclimatic change.

"For the twins to reach [age 25] together is something really special and quite unique," said Mr Perry.

"Although they've slowed down slightly in recent years and love nothing more than sunbathing in the sunshine next to their waterfall, they're still very inquisitive by nature and love investigating new things."

Zoo staff treated the pair to a birthday cake made of fruit, presents full of their favourite treats to unwrap, and pinatas in the shape of a 25 to mark their day.

Mr Perry said: "Not only will our gifts give them the chance to use their natural curiosity, they'll enjoy them too, and we hope there are many more birthdays to come."
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Double treble: What's the chance of having three sets of twins?
By Ben Carter, BBC News

Last month Karen Rodger, 41, from Renfrewshire in the UK, gave birth to a third set of non-identical twins. Doctors said the chance of this was 500,000 to one - but how accurate is this?

Twinning rates vary around the world, but in the UK there is a 112-to-one chance of a pregnancy resulting in non-identical twins.
That's if we don't include babies conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), where twin births occur much more frequently.
So in theory the odds of having two sets would be 112 multiplied by 112, which is around 12,500 to one and the odds of having three sets would be 112 cubed, or 1.4 million to one.

But it's not quite that simple, because non-identical twins come in clusters.
Rolling a six on a dice doesn't suggest that another six is on the way, but having non-identical twins makes more twins much more likely.
"Family studies have shown that a woman who has had DZ (non-identical) twins is more about four times more likely to have more in a subsequent pregnancy, than a woman who has not," says Jane Denton, Director of the Multiple Births Foundation.

So for a woman who has had one set of non-identical twins, the chance of another set is not 112 to one, but just 28 to one.
Therefore, the probability of having three sets of non-identical twins is not one in 500,000, but one in 112 x 28 x 28... which is about 88,000.

Identical twins are much less common. In the UK, they turn up once in 227 pregnancies on average - again, excluding IVF conceptions - and they do not come in clusters.
So the chance of three sets of identical twins is 11.7 million to one against.

These figures for the UK, however, do not apply to the rest of the world. Twinning rates vary enormously from one country to the next.
In Vietnam, on average, there are 6.2 twins per 1,000 births, while in the US there are five times as many - 33.2 per 1,000 births.

It's not known why this is but it appears that body composition can influence the chance of having twins.
Several studies have shown that for tall women (164 cm and over), the relative chance of having twins is between 1.5 and two times higher than for short women (under 155 cm).

Mothers of twins also have a higher body mass index (BMI) compared to mothers of single children - a BMI of less than 20 is associated with a lower probability of twinning while a BMI of 30 or more is associated with a higher likelihood.

There is also evidence that the chance of having twins increases the later a mother gives birth.
Experts think this happens because of a change in hormonal signals sent between pituitary gland and the ovary.

In the UK, the odds of having any kind of twins at any age is one in 63 but these odds reduce to one in 46 once a woman is older than 35, and one in 18 if a woman conceives after the age of 45.

A number of studies have shown that in several countries seasonal variation influences non-identical twinning. There are higher rates of conception during the summer and autumn.
One theory put forward is that day length may influence hormonal concentrations driving ovarian activity and influence fertility and multiple ovulation.

A study by Johan Fellman and Aldur Eriksson at the Folkhalsan Institute of Genetics in Helsinki also suggests that changes in food supply during different seasons may also contribute.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22813345
 
Identical Astronauts Prepare for First Twin Study in Space
NASA aims to unravel genetic differences in how the human body reacts to space
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... twin-study
By Clara Moskowitz

Identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly

TWO OF A KIND: Identical twin astronauts Scott Kelly (left) and Mark Kelly will be test subjects for NASA's first twin study in space in 2015.
Image: NASA

Famous for teasing out the effects of nature and nurture, studies comparing twins are a hallmark of research in many fields, including psychology, biology and medicine. Now NASA is preparing to run the first twin study in space, comparing how identical twin astronauts fare while one spends a year in orbit and the other remains on the ground.

Scott Kelly, along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, is due to spend a full year living on the International Space Station from spring 2015 to spring 2016. Meanwhile Mark Kelly, Scott’s six-minutes-older brother and a retired astronaut, will live his normal life on the ground, undergoing periodic medical tests that will match those being performed on Scott in space.

Identical twins share essentially all their DNA, so any differences between them, the thinking goes, must be attributable to environmental disparities (that is, nurture, not nature). Spaceflight is known to cause bone-density loss, muscle atrophy, eyesight damage, a weakened immune system, sleep disturbance and a host of other problems. But why these symptoms differ among individuals is less well understood and may be partly attributable to genetics. By comparing Scott with Mark, as well as with Kornienko, NASA scientists hope to explore how DNA affects these changes. "It offers an opportunity for an extra control to see if that can help us better understand this long-duration spaceflight process," says International Space Station program scientist Julie Robinson.

NASA scientists admit the study is less than ideal because of the extremely small sample size—two participants—and because Scott and Mark will experience other environmental differences in addition to gravity and radiation. "Mark Kelly and Scott Kelly will not be on the same diet during the period of the one-year mission," NASA documents state, "nor will they be experiencing the same levels of carbon dioxide. Nor will they be sleeping on the same schedule.… We acknowledge that this schema is not ideal and we would like to better control all these potentially confounding variables—but at least for this particular twin study, that will not be possible."

"Obviously the sample groups have to have a certain number to be statically significant, so some of the science we're doing is more anecdotal," Scott Kelly says. "But you can learn something and maybe learn about certain phenomena that you would then decide to investigate further."

The response from the scientific community has been mixed. "My first thought was, this is so exciting, this is wonderful," says Nancy Segal of California State University, Fullerton, who directs the Twin Studies Center there. "I really applaud NASA for going ahead with it." But others say having just a single twin in space will be practically useless. "This strikes me as a bit silly," says Tim Spector of Kings College London, who founded the U.K. Twins Registry. "You can compare the same person before and after [spaceflight] better than you can compare the person and their twin. If they’d taken both of them on the mission, they could have explored how similarly they behave." And with the ground-based twin experiencing so many environmental differences from his brother beyond simply the space environment, it will be hard to know which factors contributed to any divergent outcomes. "I think this study will provide some insights that will have a lot of caveats," says twin researcher Jeanette Taylor of Florida State University.

These caveats have not stopped researchers from submitting numerous ideas to NASA for studies that can be carried out on the Kelly brothers during the year-long mission. The space agency has called for studies on the bodily effects of radiation in space, on how gravity transitions affect RNA, protein expression and metabolic changes in the body, and on how the space environment affects thinking, decision making, alertness, stress and emotions, among other topics. Proposals were due in September, and NASA will make a final selection at the end of January.

The Kelly brothers were born in Orange, N.J., and both grew up to be captains and test pilots in the U.S. Navy before joining NASA in 1996. That both of them turned out to have “the right stuff," when so many do not, seems in part to be traceable to genetics. But of course, they have their differences. "I'm the smarter of the two and the better-looking, with the more charming personality," Scott jokes. In reality, he says, "we're two individuals who were born on the same day from the same egg, but other than that we are two different people."

Mark Kelly flew on four space shuttle missions before retiring in October 2011 to spend more time with his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman who was shot in front of a grocery store earlier that year while meeting with constituents. Scott is a veteran of two space shuttle missions and one previous long-duration stay on the space station, where he lived for five months from 2010 to 2011.

NASA credits Scott and Mark themselves with the idea for the twin study, but Scott demurs, saying he merely raised the topic as a possible subject that might come up during a press conference announcing the mission. Once NASA scientists decided the study had some merit, the brothers were onboard. Both have agreed to provide blood samples, saliva, cheek swabs and stool, and to undergo psychological and physical tests. "It's not necessarily a comfortable experience," Scott says, "but you recognize how important it is, and you recognize how privileged you are to be in this position and serve your country as an astronaut."

Scott Kelly and Kornienko's mission will be the first time anyone has spent a year on the International Space Station, although four Soviet cosmonauts spent roughly a year or more on the space station Mir in the 1990s. A main motivation for the upcoming extended mission is to study how the bodily effects of spaceflight differ over long periods compared with the usual five- or sixth-month stints on the orbiting laboratory. Knowing how people fare for a year in space—and how best to mitigate the negative effects—is critical if humans are to venture farther out into the solar system. "If we're ever going to go to Mars or do missions of longer duration," Scott says, "we're going to have to expand the envelope of how long we've flown people in space."
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Hythe man charged with murdering identical twin

A man has been charged with murdering his identical twin brother, who died after a fight in a house in Hampshire on New Year's Eve.

Christopher Cerqua, 31, of Langdown Road, Hythe, was found in his home with serious injuries at about 21:00 GMT.
He was taken to Southampton General Hospital but was pronounced dead at 22:20 GMT.

His twin Robert Cerqua, who lives at the same address, has been charged with murder, Hampshire Police said.
He will appear at Southampton Magistrates' Court on Friday.

The cause of Mr Cerqua's death is yet to be disclosed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-25576968

Is this a Strange Crime? Who has statistics for this sort of thing?
 
I read this earlier on the BBC website, and thought how the one person that you've been closer to all your life, that you've shared experiences with, and who knows most of all how you are feeling and really understands you should die at your hands.
How horribly tragic for all involved.
 
World's former oldest twin Ena Pugh dies aged 104
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-25654553

Ena Pugh and Lily Millward

Ena Pugh and Lily Millward were officially declared the world's oldest twins in 2010

Related Stories

Twin sisters lose 'oldest' record
'Oldest living twins' aged 102
Twins, 101, see names on census

A woman who was once one of the world's oldest twins has died two days after celebrating her 104th birthday.

Ena Pugh, from Erwood in Powys, died at Hereford County Hospital on 6 January.

Mrs Pugh and her sister Lily Millward were named as Guinness World Record holders for being the world's oldest twins in 2010.

But they lost the title two years later when it emerged that twins from Scotland were 50 days older.

Mrs Millward, who is recuperating in Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny, after a fall at her home near Brecon last week has been told of her sister's death.

Queen Victoria
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

She enjoyed her birthday on Saturday when we took her cards and a present”

Pauline Davies
Ena Pugh's daughter
Mrs Pugh's daughter, Pauline, said her mother had lived at home until she was admitted to hospital after a fall six weeks ago,

"She enjoyed her birthday on Saturday when we took her cards and a present," said Mrs Davies.

Farmer's daughters Mrs Pugh and Mrs Millward were born on 4 January, 1910 when Queen Victoria's son Edward VII was king.

They took the record from two French sisters, Raymonde and Lucienne Wattelade, who were 98 years old at the time.

But they lost the title when it emerged that 102-year-old sisters Edith Ritchie and Evelyn Middleton, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland were 50 days older than the Powys twins.

Mrs Pugh's funeral will be held at Erwood Baptist Chapel nest Tuesday.
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rynner2 said:
Hythe man charged with murdering identical twin

A man has been charged with murdering his identical twin brother, who died after a fight in a house in Hampshire on New Year's Eve.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-25576968

Is this a Strange Crime? Who has statistics for this sort of thing?
Click to expand...
Hampshire twin death: Robert Cerqua denies killing brother

A man has denied murdering his identical twin brother, who died after a fight at their Hampshire home on New Year's Eve.
Christopher Cerqua, 31, of Langdown Road, Hythe, was found with serious injuries in the house the twins shared.
He was taken to hospital in Southampton but was later pronounced dead.

His brother Robert Cerqua pleaded not guilty to murder when he appeared earlier and will stand trial at Winchester Crown Court on 6 October.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-26386606
 
Identical Twins Found Dead Sitting In Recliners After 2 Years: Report
The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/0 ... 70405.html

Posted: 04/01/2014 2:00 pm EDT Updated: 04/01/2014 2:59 pm EDT

Tennessee police are investigating the strange deaths of identical twin brothers whose decomposing bodies were found sitting in recliners in their Chattanooga home over the weekend.

Neighbors told WRCB that they hadn't seen Anthony and Andrew Johnson, 63, in about two years. They told the station that they assumed the twins stayed indoors because of their health, and never suspected anything was wrong since their home's yard was kept and mail was not overflowing from their mailbox.

"I haven't seen them in over a year and a half. I thought maybe they'd been put in a nursing home," Barbara Owens, who lives a few doors down, told the station.

In August 2011, a relative reportedly came to check on the brothers but couldn't get in without a key. Police wouldn't force their way inside. Over the weekend, a relative was able to gain entry, and made the grisly discovery.

Chattanooga police estimate the date of death to be sometime in early 2011, based on the condition of the bodies and receipts found in the house. Medical examiners are working to determine an exact date and cause of death.

Neighbors said the men had often stayed indoors because they were diabetics. WAAY reports that at this time, police say there is no evidence of foul play.
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Long article - this is just for starters:

Longest-separated twins find each other
By Vibeke Venema, BBC World Service

Imagine delving into your family history and discovering you have a twin. That's what happened to Ann Hunt, a 78-year-old, who had no idea she had a sibling at all until last year. Now she and twin Elizabeth Hamel have met for the first time since they were babies - setting a new world record.

"Lizzie, Lizzie, how lovely," said Ann when she finally got to hug her sister.
"How lovely to see you in the flesh," said Elizabeth.

Last April, Elizabeth, a 78-year-old from Portland, in the US state of Oregon, was shuffling through her mail when she saw a letter from Aldershot, UK - the town where she was born. "I saw Aldershot, ooh, I did a double-take on that," says Elizabeth. "I opened it up and looked at it, and my eyes popped out my head."

"I am writing to you as I am searching for a family connection," the letter began. Elizabeth knew exactly who this was about, and minutes later she was on the phone to the UK.

On the other end of the line was Ann, her long-lost twin sister. "I was over the moon, I couldn't speak," Ann says. "I let Elizabeth speak mostly, I had to pinch myself because I realised, I've got a sibling, a sister. It's so wonderful, I'm not on my own any more. I've got no words to say. I'm so happy - I have Elizabeth." :)

Unlike Ann, Elizabeth knew she had a sister.
"I've been praying for you for many years," she told Ann in that first conversation. Over the years she had made some attempts to trace her but without success. It seemed an impossible task. "I thought - being adopted, she could be anywhere in the world," Elizabeth says. "It was amazing to me that she was still in Aldershot."

On 1 May 2014, a year after that first conversation and 78 years after they were separated, Ann and Elizabeth were reunited in Fullerton, near Los Angeles, on Thursday - the longest gap on record, Guinness World Records says.

They were invited to the city by Dr Nancy Segal, a psychologist who has been researching twins for more than two decades. Twins who have been brought up separately are of great interest to scientists examining inherited or genetic influences on behaviour. Segal will be looking for similarities and differences during a two-day study, and carrying out DNA analysis to establish whether they are identical or non-identical (fraternal) twins. "What was it in their life that caused the differences? If they're fraternal, it could be character as well as circumstance," Segal says.

"We want to get a comprehensive overview of their lives, their abilities, their interests, and put it all together as an important case study, because this is really the world's longest separated pair of twins."

"I'm 20 minutes older than my sister," says Elizabeth confidently. It's the kind of thing twins often say, but in this case every detail is new and exciting. Elizabeth has been looking forward to taking part in the study. For Ann, it's been about one thing only: "Just getting over there to give Liz a big hug. I can't get there quick enough, to tell you the truth. I'm over the moon. There'll be tears and everything."

The twins were born Elizabeth Ann Lamb and Patricia Susan Lamb on 28 February 1936, in Aldershot, UK. Their unmarried mother, Alice Alexandra Patience Lamb, was in service as a domestic cook. Their father's name was Peters and he was in the army - Aldershot has had a military base since 1854 - but he never saw his daughters.

Ann Hunt grew up in Aldershot as the only child of Hector Wilson and his wife Gladys, who worked as the manageress of the Post Office canteen. The Post Office boys always looked out for Ann.

She was 14, when she found out she was adopted. Her aunt told her, so she went home and asked: "Were we adopted, mum?" An odd choice of words. "You and your 'we'," her mum replied. "No, you were a chosen child. God sent you. Your mother wasn't able to keep you, so she allowed me to look after you and to adopt you as mine - someone to love."

Ann doesn't know why she used the word "we" - she doesn't think her adoptive mother had any idea she was a twin. "She would have told me," she says.
So could Ann have had a physical memory of her twin? Dr Segal doesn't think so. "I think people over-romanticise that," she says. "I don't think once they are born they crave physical comfort. A mother who has lost one twin might say: 'The twin is looking for comfort.' Or people say they were unhappy and something was missing - but I think you can read too much into that."

The year Gladys died, in 2001, Ann finally went to the register office to collect a copy of her own birth certificate. It gave her birth mother's name, Alice Lamb. Her occupation was listed as, "a Cook (domestic)". It noted her address, but not her age. There was no mention of any other children on the document either.

Ann's youngest daughter, Samantha Stacey, enjoyed investigating family trees, so Ann asked her to find out more about her birth family. It was the start of a long and frustrating process. Initially, all the information was on microfiche - "eye-killing and migraine-inducing", says Samantha. Also, not knowing Alice's age made it quite hard to know when to start looking - they assumed she had been very young when she got pregnant, but in fact she didn't have the twins until she was 33.

Samantha placed ads in the local paper, looked up electoral rolls, and searched online forums. Whenever the search came to a stop, something would start the process off again. After they found Alice's birth certificate, Ann wistfully said: "It would be nice to have a picture." And in 2010, when her husband asked her what she wanted for Christmas, Samantha replied: "Alice's death certificate."

Finally, in 2013, there was a breakthrough. They knew that Alice had got married, at the age of 49, to a George Burton, in Chester, and had a stepson, Albert. Although Albert had also died, they eventually tracked down his son, who said: "Oh yes, Alice has a daughter in the US." That was how they found out about Elizabeth. 8)

Ann remembers her daughter telling her: "We've found your sister but there's a bonus… she's your twin sister." Ann believes it was meant to be. Both sisters have lost their husbands, so this is a real comfort.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27188642

(Especially interesting to me, as my grandparents lived in Aldershot, so may have known the young Ann.)
 
Roger Federer's wife Mirka gives birth to second set of twins

Roger Federer's wife Mirka has given birth to their second set of twins.
Federer, 32, pulled out of this week's Madrid Masters tournament on Tuesday as the Swiss world number four chose to be with his wife for the birth in Zurich.
"Mirka and I are so incredibly happy to share that Leo and Lenny were born this evening," tweeted Federer, who will likely miss next week's Rome Masters.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion already has four-year-old twin girls, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva.

Federer, whose older sister Diana also has twins, is expected to return to tennis at the French Open, which starts on 25 May.
The 2009 champion at Roland Garros has not missed a Grand Slam tournament since 2000.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/27291534
 
US twin baby sisters born holding hands
A pair of US twin sisters who were born holding hands were breathing on their own after being removed from a ventilator, their mother has said.

Jillian and Jenna Thistlethwaite shared an amniotic sac and placenta, a rare condition known as monoamniotic birth.

"They're already best friends," said their mother, Sarah Thistlethwaite.
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Rest of article at link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-27378520
 
Rare twins born in Sydney
A Sydney woman Renee Young has given birth to twin girls born with a very rare medical condition called diprosopus.

The girls, named Hope and Faith, share a heart, a body, limbs and a skull, but they each have their own brains and a set of identical facial features.

Young and her partner Simon Howie, parents to seven other children, said the girls were doing well after being born on Thursday.

"They are breathing perfectly on their own and feeding," Howie told Woman's Day...
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Monstrosa said:
Rare twins born in Sydney
The girls, named Hope and Faith, share a heart, a body, limbs and a skull, but they each have their own brains and a set of identical facial features.
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Reminiscent of Janus:
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ... is the god of beginnings and transitions,[1] thence also of gates, doors, passages, endings and time. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. The Romans named the month of January (Ianuarius) in his honor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus
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Leeds live liver operation showed twins are identical

The first identical twins to undergo a live liver transplant in the UK did not realise they were identical until one of them needed surgery.
Annemarie Atha, 48, said she did not hesitate in giving part of her liver to her sister Geraldine Rowing when she became so ill a transplant was advised.
The sisters, from Rothwell, Leeds had the surgery at St James's Hospital in the city in April.
Surgeon Raj Prasad said it was "God or nature's gift, It's a dream."

Ms Rowing said she had suffered liver cancer a few years ago and her doctors eventually recommended she be put on the transplant list.
She mentioned to her doctor she was a non-identical twin and he suggested doing tests.
However, the test revealed the sisters were actually genetically identical despite not looking exactly the same.

It means Ms Rowing does not need to take a cocktail of drugs to stop her body rejecting the new organ.
"I would just like to say, thank you very much Annemarie," she said.
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
Ms Atha said: "I always said I would do it anyway.

"Mum always said that because there were two placentas when we were born that we weren't identical," said Ms Atha.
"So, we've grown up believing we're not identical because Geraldine's got a wider smile than me and she's got a squarer face than me.
"But, [the doctors] said you're identical enough to do the transplant."

Julie Jeffrey, Liver Transplant co-ordinator at St James's Hospital. said: "We know that it is very unusual for somebody that needs a liver transplant to come forward with an identical twin and we know that these are the first ones in the UK that have had a live donor liver transplant from a [compatible] twin.

Consultant liver surgeon Mr Prasad, who carried out the operation, said live liver transplants - where the donor is a living person who donates a section of their organ for the operation - are getting more common.
But he said the benefits of identical twins having the operation was massive.
He said: "It's an absolutely massive advantage which is God or nature's gift. It's a dream." 8)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-so ... e-29990610
 
Twin brothers' baby boys born on same day

Twin brothers have become fathers of baby boys within hours of each other, at the same hospital, delivered by the same midwife, and both two days early. 8)

Jeromme Spence's baby, Cameron, was born at 02:04 GMT at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton on Monday, and Jarrell Spence's baby, Cassen, at 04:34 GMT.
Ladbrokes bookmakers said the odds of it occurring were "at least 150,000/1".
Midwife Barbara Kapoor said: "I have never ever heard of this happening before. It is amazing."

The 21-year-old twins, from the Fordhouses area of the city, are both first-time parents.
They said: "It is absolutely amazing that we became fathers of sons on the same day. It is great for everyone and everyone at the hospital was great."

Jeromme's partner Tegan Compton, 19, and Jarrell's partner Francesca Ashe, also 19, even gave birth in the same water birthing pool and the same midwife delivered both boys.
"Tegan and me came in first and little Cameron was born just a few hours later. Then the pool was washed and cleaned, and we handed over to Jarrell and Francesca," Jeromme said.

Jarrell, who works for a catering company, said: "We got here at about two in the morning and we could hear someone's voice and I said: 'That's Tegan.'
"Mum was with me so when Tegan gave birth she went over to see her grandson and then a couple of hours later she had another one." :D

Jeromme, who works in a sports shop, said: "We knew that our partners were both given the same due date [26 November] but we just never expected the births to be really on the same day."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bi ... m-30153492
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...cal-sisters-are-still-inseparable-at-103.html
They're twin-credible: after 103 years, Britain's oldest identical sisters are still inseparable
Florence Davies and Glenys Thomas, from Caerphilly, south Wales, have seen 19 British Prime Ministers in power and were born the year of King George V's coronation
By Agency
9:58AM GMT 25 Jan 2015
Devoted sisters Florence Davies and Glenys Thomas are claiming to be Britain's oldest twins - at 103.
The identical pair have seen 19 British Prime Ministers in power and were born the year of King George V's coronation - and they have been virtually inseparable the entire time.
The sisters even lived next door to each other for decades, and moved into the same care home together.
The two were born five minutes apart on November 22, 1911, have five children, 12 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.
Mrs Davies and Mrs Thomas now live at the Abermill Care Home in Caerphilly, south Wales, after living in the same street in nearby Abertridwr for nealry all their lives.
Click to expand...



''Twins Glenys Thomas and Florence Davies - The UK's oldest twins after celebrating their 103rd birthday together. Photo: Tony Woolway''
 
What if your evil twin lives inside you? What if it is taking over your brain?
Surgeons Discover Woman's Embryonic Twin Lodged Deep Inside Her Brain via io9
During a surgery to remove an apparent brain tumor in a 26-year-old woman, doctors in Los Angeles were shocked to discover an embryonic twin instead.

As reported by NBC Los Angeles, the patient, an Indiana University PhD student named Yamini Karanam, had been struggling with reading- and listening- comprehension when she sought out the help of Dr. Hrayr Shahinian, who is known for developing a minimally-invasive technique for removing tumors deep inside the brain.
Click to expand...
Or in my case what if it has taken over my brain?
 
My advice: don't pretend to bury them in a fake funeral ceremony, because they will return with a vengeance and mess up your writing career.
 
Twins have different fathers, judge finds in paternity case
Man ordered to pay child support for just one twin after DNA test reveals other baby was fathered by someone else
By AFP
2:19AM BST 08 May 2015

A paternity case involving a set of twins had a surprise ending worthy of a daytime TV talk show: The girls have different dads.
A judge ruled on Monday in a paternity case that the man from whom the twins' mother sought child support has to pay for only one of the children. A DNA test showed that he was almost certainly the father of one twin but wasn't the father of the other.

It's rare for a woman to give birth to twins with different fathers. Passaic County Superior Court Judge Sohail Mohammad wrote in his opinion that he found two other court cases nationally on such matters.
It can happen when the woman has sexual intercourse with two men in the same menstrual cycle and two of her eggs are fertilized separately by each man.
The case came to light when a Passaic County woman sought child support payments from a man she thought was the father of her daughters, who were born in January 2013. The DNA test was conducted.
In court testimony, the mother said she had sex with both men in a span of about a week.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...nt-fathers-judge-finds-in-paternity-case.html
 
Britain's oldest twins die weeks apart aged 103
Glenys Thomas and Florence Davies - born year before Titanic sank - pass away within month of each other after life in South Wales village
By Agency
5:26PM BST 27 May 2015

Britain's oldest twins have died just weeks apart after being inseparable for 103 years.
Glenys Thomas died in April before her heartbroken sister Florence Davies passed away within a month.
The great-great-grandmothers were born in 1911, the year before the Titanic sunk. They lived through two world wars, the civil rights movement and huge advances in technology and transport.

But they always lived in the small mining village of Abertridwr, in Caerphilly, South Wales, where they had homes next to each other.
The twins - believed to be the oldest identical twins in the world - built an interior door joining the two kitchens of their homes to make it easier to see each other.
The pair did everything together before Mrs Thomas died on April 23, followed by Mrs Davies last Wednesday, May 20. Their family put their great age down to a "nice, quiet life".

oldest-twins-02_3319882b.jpg

Florence Davies and Glenys Thomas, pictured as children, died aged 103

Mrs Thomas's daughter Gwenda Stacey, 65, said: "They have lived a simple life, they never went abroad, they were always happiest together."

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...ns-oldest-twins-die-weeks-apart-aged-103.html

Imagine knowing someone for over 100 years. None of my relationships, whether friends or relations, have lasted anywhere near as long... :(

So RIP now, you Welsh girls, mothers, and old ladies...
 
Identical twins in Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet.

Shadow business secretary - Angela Eagle

Shadow defence secretary - Maria Eagle

 
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