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Twins & Other Birth Multiples (Triplets, Etc.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg4cPWy0yR0&feature=user

This is a rather facinating excerpt from a documentary on the Chaplin twins (Greta and Freda). These two women have been described as having the nearest thing medical science has ever seen to telepathy. Dressing indentically, eating identically - sometimes even speaking as one.

They are quite hard to understand with their strong yorkshire accents but it is a bit spooky when they begin talking in unison and finishing each others sentences.
 
Chaplin twins separated following sister's death
From the archive, first published Tuesday 25th Sep 2007.

FOR decades they were inseparable, identical twins who dressed, thought and spoke as one.

The astonishing Chaplin twins made headlines around the world for their bizarre life as near-perfect clones of each other.

Freda and Greta walked in step, ate in tandem, had the same mannerisms and, incredibly, often appeared to speak simultaneously.

But now Freda is facing the rest of her life alone - after the death of Greta at the age of 64.

The pair lived in Moor Lane, York, in the same house where they were born in 1943. and in 1981 their remarkably close life was exposed to the world.

A lorry driver took them to court claiming they had hounded him for 15 years.

In court they dressed identically and spoke exactly the same words virtually as one, with only the briefest moment between one starting and the other following.

The two were jailed for a month for breaching the peace but the case - and the twins in particular - proved fascinating for media around the world.

One report at the time of the court case said their deputy headmaster placed the blame for their extreme closeness on their mother.

"It was quite clear that they had a doting mother who never allowed them a separate identity," he said.

The pair were said to have been ordinary children until the age of about 11 when they became dependent on each another. They would scream when teachers made them sit apart in school, and would resist efforts to distinguish or divide them.

The closeness continued right to the end. "You could not part them," said one neighbour.

"They used to come here and if I gave them biscuits they would both reach for the same biscuit at the same time."

Greta died of cancer and carcinomatosis in June. Freda is now thought to be in a care home.

http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/20 ... 38425.html
 
More here:
The twins showed a tendencey to the "mirror imaging" which is often typical of identical twins. (That is to say if one is left handed, the other will be right handed, if the twirls of hair grow clockwise in one, they will grow anti-clockwise on the other and so on)One twin wears a bracelet on the left wrist, the other on the right. When one broke a shoelace, the other removed her own shoelace on the opposite side.

At some point the twins had been forced to leave home - neither they nor their mother would disclose why. At thirty seven they were unmarried and jobless; they lived in a local service hostel. They cooked breakfast in their room together, both holding the frying pan, then went out in identical clothes. Whey both had identical grey coats with different coloured buttons, they simply swapped half the buttons so both had both colours. When given different pairs of gloves, they took one of each pair. When given two different bars of soap, they cut each in half and shared them. They told a woman journalist that they had one brain, and were really one person, claiming to know exactly what the other is thinking. Their "simultaneous behaviour" suggests that some form of telepathy exists between them. They occasionally quarrel, hitting one another lightly with identical handbags, then sulking for hours. But in spite of these disagreements, it seems clear that their common aim is to exclude the external world and live in their own private universe.
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon3/annabelle/twins.html

And they also featured on one of Arthur C. Clarke's programmes, in an 11 minute clip. (TV series, The Extraordinary.)
 
Identical twins Lexus and Amber Conway could start school a year apart
Alexandra Frean, Education Editor

Parents of a pair of identical twins are concerned that their week-old daughters could be sent to school a year apart because they were born either side of the deadline for primary school applications.

Lexus and Amber Conway are identical in almost every way — but have different birthdays.

The twins were born three weeks prematurely, Lexus at 11.20pm on August 31, weighing 5lb 4oz. But Amber was born an hour and five minutes later, at 12.25am on September 1, after complications forced doctors at the Barratt Maternity Unit at Northampton General Hospital to perform a Caesarean section.

As she lay on the operating table, the girls' mother, Sarah Conway, 37, was alerted by midwives to the fact that one of the babies would be born after August 31, the date used to determine which school year pupils go into.

“First I realised the girls would have separate birthdays, which I was a bit upset about. Doctors were working hard to hurry up Amber's birth but the minutes ticked by.

“Then the midwives started telling me, when I was still getting stitched up, that there will be a problem with schooling — the girls will be one year apart.

“I was devastated. I wanted the doctors to fudge the paperwork and pretend Amber was born half an hour earlier, but they couldn't,” Ms Conway said.

She said that she and her partner Ian Caldwell, 42, would move heaven and earth to make sure their twin daughters were taught together.

“There's no way you can have Amber sitting at home while Lexus starts school,” Ms Conway said. “It would be desperately unfair on her to be excluded whilst her twin has all the fun. Also, if one went to school and the other didn't, their development would be different. And on the practical side, I need to work. It would be a nightmare.

“We will do all we can to fight to ensure there's leniency and they go to the same school.”

Mr Caldwell, 42, himself a twin, said the couple would either have the girls taught at home, or take the drastic measure of moving to Spain if they were unable to start primary school together.

It is highly unlikely that such action will be necessary. Local authorities are fairly strict about the August 31 cut-off date for school applications for individual children. But they are bound by law to act in the best interests of each child and would almost certainly agree to make an exception in this case so that the girls could remain in the same academic year.

A spokeswoman for Northamptonshire County Council said that when the time came for the girls to go to school, it would be willing to be flexible over the August 31 deadline. “Any decision made will be in the best interests of both children as well taking into consideration the wishes of the parents,” she said.

The couple, who have two older sons, Matthew, 16, and Jamie 10, say separate birthdays are also likely to cause problems for vaccination dates and appointments, with Lexus being technically a day older than her sister. Ms Conway, an administrator for a van hire company, said: “With jabs and things, we're going to have to go again the next day for Amber.”

She added: “How do you have a birthday on one day and do it all over again for the other one? And how do you choose which day to celebrate both?”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 719749.ece
 
Easy. Keep the 'older' child back until she is legally obliged to start school, which is the term before her 5th birthday. Both girls can then benefit from extra nursery education and parental contact instead of entering the SATS rat-race separately.
 
And not too far from here...

Twins see in 101st New Year

By JOHN COLES

BRITAIN’S oldest twins celebrate their 101st birthday today.
Last night identical sisters Betty Richards and Jenny Pelmore were in a party mood as they saw in the New Year.

The widowed pair remain amazingly active.

Both began to learn Spanish at night classes aged 97 and they still travel — last year they visited Budapest, Hungary.

Jenny, a neighbour of Betty’s in Truro, Cornwall, said: “We’re healthy — and together, which is the main thing.

“Being busy and not sitting still for too long is the key.”

Her sister added: “The secret is to live in the moment. Keep smiling and keep going.”

Betty, who only recently gave up bee-keeping, married Brandon Richards in 1936 and has two children, two grandchildren and two great-grandchilden.

Jenny, whose hobby is painting, wed RAF pilot Hugh Pelmore in 1947.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... 084821.ece
 
Another version..

New Year twins celebrate birthday

Twin sisters, believed to be the oldest in Britain, are celebrating their 101st birthdays.

Betty Richards and Jenny Pelmore, who live a mile apart in Truro, Cornwall, were delivered by a doctor who arrived on horseback on New Year's Day, 1908.

The twins, who have lived in Cornwall for more than 50 years, said good health and keeping active was their secret to long life.

Mrs Pelmore has recently bought herself a new car. :shock:

"I'm still driving and my new car is a Mitsubishi," she told BBC News.

"It's got lovely high seats, does nearly 85 miles to the gallon and is very comfortable - I'm very proud of it."


In recent years the sisters have also learned Spanish and taken up painting.

A family party is planned for later this month, but the twins will still be celebrating their special day with neighbours, family and friends.

"A lot of the family are living abroad, but you don't live somewhere for nearly 60 years without making a lot of friends," Mrs Pelmore said.

Both sisters were married but are now widows. Mrs Richards, who trained as a teacher and later became a beekeeper, has two children, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Mrs Pelmore said she and her sister were looking forward to a lovely summer, with better weather than last year.

"If the weather's good, we shall be relaxing and enjoy watching people do funny things," she said.

"I'm booked to do a painting course, which shall be such fun and Betty will be coming along for the ride.

"It's so good to have hobbies and do interesting things."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7806953.stm
 
Nazi 'Angel of Death' not responsible for town of twins
www.newscientist.com/article/dn16492-na ... twins.html
by Linda Geddes

A high rate of twin births in Linha São Pedro, Brazil, had been put down to genetic meddling by Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Now experts say inbreeding is the likely cause (Image: Paulo Vilani, Banco de Dados ZH)
Brazilian scientists have rejected claims that the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele – notorious for his experiments at Auschwitz – was responsible for creating a tribe of twins in a small town near the border with Argentina.

In his book, Mengele: The Angel Of Death In South America, Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa claims that Mengele made regular trips to Linha São Pedro, a small and predominantly German settlement near the city of Cândido Godói in Brazil, during the 1960s. Shortly afterwards, the birth rate of twins began to spiral, he says.

However, Ursula Matte of the medical genetics unit at Porto Alegre Hospital in Brazil and her colleagues reject any notion that Mengele was responsible for the phenomenon. Her team was invited to Linha São Pedro during 1994 to investigate reports of a higher than average number of twin births in the town.

Generation hop
From 1990 to 1994, the proportion of twin births in Linha São Pedro was 10%, compared to 1.8% for rest of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

"Even though we could not find a definitive explanation for this higher incidence, the existence of other 'twin towns' around the world – most of them in remote isolated areas with high levels of inbreeding just as Linha São Pedro – shows that external influence is not needed for this to happen," Matte says.

Her team interviewed and conducted blood tests on 17 of the 22 pairs of twins living in Linha São Pedro, around half of which were identical twins.

Genealogical analysis showed a high recurrence of multiple births within families, as well as a high level of inbreeding within the community, suggesting the presence of genetic twinning factors.

The high level of inbreeding, combined with an absence of twins every other generation would suggest a recessive trait, Matte adds.

Teutonic traits
Although Camarasa argues that the high prevalence of blonde hair and blue eyes among the twins could be evidence of Mengele's "Aryanising" influence, Matte points out that the village was founded by German immigrants who often have such features.

"In addition, I don't think Mengele would have the knowledge, not to mention the means, to engender the rise in twin births in this community," she says. "It's noteworthy that twin births occurred there in almost every time period, even in the 1990s, so what kind of long-lasting manipulation could he have perpetrated?"

Twin births have been linked to exposure to toxic waste and increased use of IVF, but even now, says Matte, we don't fully understand the mechanisms involved, "and it is extremely hard for me to think that Mengele would have known it in the late 1960s," she says.

Journal reference: Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae (vol 45, p 431)
 
Malaysian twins spared death row
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7876221.stm

Malaysian identical twin brothers have escaped hanging for drug trafficking as a court failed to decide which brother was the criminal, and cleared both.

A judge in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, said the case was unique and she could not send the wrong person to his death.

In 2003 police arrested one brother found driving drugs to a house. The second twin arrived soon afterwards and was also arrested.

Neither officers nor a DNA test could identify which twin owned the drugs.

Sathis and Sabarish Raj, 27, cried in court when they heard the judge say that the prosecution had failed to prove which twin had been arrested first with a car containing 166kg of cannabis and almost 2kg of raw opium.

According to the New Straits Times, the judge told the court: "I can't be calling the wrong twin to enter his defence. I can't be sending the wrong person to the gallows."

Execution is mandatory for convicted drugs traffickers in Malaysia.
 
Twins "Sixth Sense" saves sister

Twin's `sixth sense' saves sister

Mike Keegan

March 23, 2009
A TEENAGER saved her twin sister's life - thanks to her `sixth sense'.

Gemma Houghton, 15, said she got a `feeling' her sister Leanne was in trouble and dashed to find her unconscious and submerged in the bath.

Fit

She gave the kiss of life to Leanne, who had suffered a fit and was not breathing, and brought her round before paramedics took over.

Gemma has been given a commendation by ambulance chiefs who were amazed by her actions at the family home on Devonshire Road, Atherton, Wigan.

Dramatic

Gemma, a hairdressing student, put the dramatic rescue down to a `sixth sense'.

She said: "I just got this feeling to check on her. So I went up to the bathroom and she was under the water.

'Blue'

"At first I thought she was washing her hair or playing a trick. But when I lifted her head out of the water she had turned blue. I knew she had had a fit."

The teenager dragged her sister's lifeless body out of the bath and went to work.

'Noises'

"She weighed a ton," she joked. "I called 999 and then started CPR on her. She started making some horrible noises, like a truck, and I knew she was coming round. Then she said she was going to be sick."

Gemma says she learned what to do on a First Aid training course and now believes they should be compulsory.

"Everyone should be made to do it," she said. "You never know when someone is going to need it."

Leanne was in no doubt that she owed her life to her sister.

'Brave'

She said: "She was really brave and if it was the other way around I don't think I'd have been able to have done it - I'd have probably started crying."

The `inseparable' pair's mother Connie Hitchcock, said she was `extremely proud'.

'Amazing'

She said: "What Gemma did was amazing and I have no idea how she did it."

Paramedic Steve Pearson, who attended the incident on February 28, said: "It's quite simple, if Gemma hadn't have been there, Leanne would have died. She did an excellent job.

"By the time we arrived she was coming round after her sister had administered chest compressions."

Lots of subheadings on this story, MEN usually writes slightly less sensational copy. hmm, ok not always...

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... es_sister_
 
Lying on the bathroom floor, I couldn't believe how ill I felt. I lifted my head over the bowl and was sick, yet again. Several weeks after Helen, my identical twin sister, had told me she was pregnant with her first child, I began to feel waves of intense nausea, often soon after I got up. It was different from any other sickness I'd experienced, and would come on violently and without warning. I knew it was impossible, but it felt like only one thing: morning sickness.

I had no idea Helen was going through the same thing - although we were close, we didn't talk to each other that often. She lives more than 100 miles away in Hertfordshire and I'm in London. It was a fortnight later she phoned to tell me her symptoms. They were identical to mine.

I see myself as a rational person and I've never had much time for stories about twin "connections". Helen and I had grown up listening to the same old questions that people ask when they see that you look the same: "Do your boyfriends get confused?" "Have you ever kissed the same boy?" We bore it with good humour.

Sometimes we have finished each other's sentences, and one year we sent each other identical birthday presents, but nothing of real significance. This felt different. Was it in my imagination? It didn't feel like it. I was about to go to my GP when the symptoms began to subside. It was a relief to feel normal again and I put this episode down to a lingering stomach bug or virus. Then, a few weeks before I'd been told Helen was due to give birth, the symptoms returned, and got worse.

I woke up at about 2am one Saturday with chronic stomach cramps. I spent the early hours running between the bathroom and bedroom, overwhelmed with waves of pain, panic and nausea. I even thought about calling an emergency doctor and wondered if it was something I'd eaten, then it began to calm down and eventually I fell asleep.

A few days later, Helen rang. She told me that at about the same time - 2am on Saturday - she, too, had had crippling cramps and thought she was going into early labour.

We couldn't believe it - I knew it must be a coincidence and yet, this time, I couldn't help feeling our experiences were linked.

Then, two weeks later, I was working late so I could take the next day off to be at the hospital for Helen's birth. Switching off my PC, I noticed the time, 7.51pm. I remember bending down to gather my bags from under my desk, then a gut-wrenching spasm in my lower abdomen. I buckled back in my chair. It passed after a few minutes, but I felt dizzy and disoriented. I made it on to the tube, still feeling horribly sick. I also had a sense of dread: did this mean something was happening to my sister, too?

When I got home, there was a message from my mum to phone her urgently. I called her and she told me Helen had given birth to a boy - at 7.51pm, just as I'd turned off my PC and collapsed in my chair. She'd had a healthy baby, but the feelings of dread now made sense to me as my mother told me what had happened - Helen's birth had been traumatic and complicated. The baby's heart rate had dropped dramatically when she went into labour and she had to have an emergency caesarean. At one point, it was touch and go. She had lost a great deal of blood and had to have a transfusion. My mum told me she was still in recovery. Her husband was sitting outside the theatre with their new son in his arms, waiting for her to come round.

As my mum described the scene, I cried uncontrollably, thinking of Helen. I felt now, without a doubt, that I had experienced her birth pains, and part of her trauma, too.

Worse was the guilt that while she lay there, I knew she had given birth to a beautiful baby boy and she didn't.

It took my sister a long time to recover. Neither of us could quite believe what we'd shared, even though we'd been miles apart. Physically feeling some of her pain put me in awe of what she must have been through and we both feel much closer as a result. At least I now know what pregnancy entails - I'm hoping for both our sakes she has an easier pregnancy next time.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ins-labour
 
I recently finished reading a (fictional) crime story where twin telepathy plays a major part.
(One Last Scream, by Kevin O'Brien)

Twin Telepathy is surely the best attested paranormal phenomenum there is
- I've never heard a 'rational' explanation for it.

It just seems to be quietly ignored, despite the hundreds of documented stories.
 
It pays to be chubby for the Marquess of Cholmondeley
While most parents of twins are preoccupied with deciding on names in the days after the birth, the Marquess and Marchioness of Cholmondeley have been faced with a much thornier dilemma.
By Richard Eden
Published: 10:52PM GMT 07 Nov 2009

David Cholmondeley, 49, and Rose, 25, who married at Chelsea Town Hall in June, have to decide which of their sons will be the heir to the peer's title and estimated £60 million fortune, which includes one of England's finest country houses, Houghton Hall, in Norfolk, and a 7,500-acre estate in Cheshire.

Usually, it would be the son who entered the delivery room first, but as they were born last month by Caesarean section, their parents have come up with their own, idiosyncratic, solution.

"They have decided that the eighth marquess will be the boy who weighed more at birth," says a chum. "There was only eight ounces in it, but they will be a very significant eight ounces."

Cholmondeley, a film-maker known as David Rocksavage, is the Lord Great Chamberlain of England, who used to walk backwards in front of the Queen at the State Opening of Parliament.

His register office wedding took place two days after Mandrake disclosed that he was engaged to Rose Hanbury, a model and socialite.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... deley.html
 
Ok, looks as if its definitely a myth. Vids at link.

"Nazi Twins" a Myth: Mengele Not Behind Brazil Boom?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... 41863.html
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

November 25, 2009

Did Nazi doctor Josef Mengele carry on his sadistic science decades after World War II?

Recent reports have held up a remote Brazilian town—filled with blonde, blue-eyed twins—as evidence of Mengele's postwar attempts to add to the ranks of an Aryan "master race."

But research announced today says Cândido Godói's "Nazi twins" are nothing more than a myth.

The outback town of about 7,000 has a twin rate nearly 1,000 percent higher than the global average.

The twins' fair features are no mystery—Cândido Godói (map) is largely populated by the descendents of German immigrants. But the frequency of twin births is a decades-old mystery.

Earlier this year Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa offered a bombshell of an explanation in his book Mengele: The Angel of Death in South America.

In World War II, Mengele, aka the Angel of Death, was mainly interested in twin research while serving as chief doctor at the Birkenau extermination camp in Poland.

According to Camarasa, Mengele likely continued his twin experiments in the 1960s while on the run in South America.

Mengele disguised himself as a roaming physician and veterinarian and gave pregnant women in Cândido Godói an ahead-of-its-time, twin-inducing mix of drugs or hormones, the historian suggests.

Video: The Twins of Cândido Godói



Camarasa cites interviews with locals who say they remember the visits of a traveling German doctor who provided mysterious potions or drugs.

The locals recalled him by different names, Camarasa explained. But each interviewee had the same reaction when shown a picture of Mengele: "That's him."

Mengele was in fact in Brazil during much of his South American exile, which began in 1949 and ended in 1979, when he died of a stroke while living under an assumed name.

During the war, Mengele and colleagues had used Jewish prisoners in often deadly fertility experiments. The ultimate aim: to provide more Aryans to populate Hitler's "Thousand Year Reich."

(Related: "'Hitler's Stealth Fighter' Re-created.")

Twin Boom Predates Nazi's Exile

The twins of Cândido Godói—most of them fraternal, or nonidentical—are eager to shake their supposed Nazi connection.

"Because of these rumors that Mengele was there, the population gets very upset about it," said geneticist Lavinia Schuler-Faccini of Brazil's Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. "So some leaders of the community asked the university to start a project to try and understand why this place has such a high incidence of twin births."

The resulting research, led by Schuler-Faccini and backed by the Brazilian government, is featured in a new documentary: Explorer: Nazi Mystery—Twins From Brazil, which airs Sunday, November 29, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News and part-owns the National Geographic Channel.)

Video: The Researchers at Work



For the initial phase of their study—which has not yet been published or reviewed by outside scientists—the team combed through baptismal records, which the researchers say should cover about 75 percent of the children born in predominantly Catholic Cândido Godói. The records would reveal where and when the town's many twin births had occurred.

The town's baptismal records date back to 1927, long before Mengele's supposed arrival—and so does the exceptional rate of twinning, the team discovered.

Furthermore, the records show no "surge" in twinning in the 1960s, when Mengele is said to have experimented on the local populace, the study says.

Also, the high rate of twin births continues today, which rules out a role for Mengele, the researchers say.

Had Mengele injected mothers with something to alter their pregnancies, the twin rate should have dropped off when his supposed work stopped.

"Even if Mengele had ovulation induction drugs available, they would have had an effect only on the immediate recipients for one generation," said Gary Steinman, a twinning expert at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

"It was not even known to anyone what the genetic code was at that time, let alone the ability to alter genes, which would have been necessary to carry over the twinning trait to future generations."

Steinman was not part of the Brazilian team's initial research, but he's now helping them search for genetic clues to the phenomenon.

If Not Mengele, Who?

One clue in the baptismal records may hold the real key to Cândido Godói's twins.

The greatest incidence of twinning, by far, is in the Linha São Pedro district, some 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the town center, the researchers found.

The neighborhood was settled in the early 20th century by just eight families. Today Linha São Pedro's 80 households are home to 44 pairs of twins.

The community's isolation and small size suggests an evolutionary origin for Linha São Pedro's outsize twin population. If a small group settles a region and the settlement remains isolated for generations, the original settlers' biological quirks tend to be passed down as the same families intermarry over and over—scientists call it the founder effect.

"By chance, one or two members of these families that started Linha São Pedro could have a genetic of predisposition to have twin births," Schuler-Faccini speculated.

Scientists aren't sure exactly which gene or genes are responsible for human twinning, but twin hot spots like Cândido Godói give researchers a chance to search for repeated clues in twin DNA.

Steinman, of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, suspects a role for a growth hormone-produced protein called IGF, which he's previously linked to twinning in both cows and humans. He hopes to discover whether Cândido Godói twins have high levels of IGF and, if so, whether there's a gene mutation responsible for high concentrations of the supposed twin-producing hormone.

Whatever the causes, the town's profusion of fraternal twins isn't even especially rare, said twinning expert Bruno Reversade, of the Institute of Medical Biology in Singapore, who is not involved in the Cândido Godói research.

"There are in Nigeria and Romania isolated villages like this one, but they have not gotten [or] sought publicity," said Reversade, who called the Mengele hypothesis "preposterous."

"I concur with the authors' conclusions that it may be a founder effect," he added.

Twins Spurred by Something in the Air?

Another theory suggests that environmental factors may be at least partly responsible for Cândido Godói's profusion of twins.

Locals have long suspected that something—perhaps a pesticide—in the town's water, food, or air may be boosting the twin birth rate, according to the Nazi Mystery documentary.

"We know that twinning can be related to environmental conditions," study leader Schuler-Faccini told National Geographic News. "For example, some studies suggest that women who [consume] more milk and dairy products are more predisposed to have twins."

One explanation doesn't preclude the other, she said. Cândido Godói's twins may be born of some combination of genetics and environmental factors.

But Camarasa, the historian, still believes Mengele may have played some role.

"There is still no convincing scientific explanation of the phenomenon," he said. "There are only hypotheses, and mine is one of them.

"I think that Mengele's life in exile still holds many secrets."
 
10million to one miracles: Nestling together in their crib, the first quads ever born in Britain who are two sets of identical twins
EXCLUSIVE By Rachel Porter
Last updated at 12:11 AM on 02nd January 2010

Sean and Lisa Kelly can barely tear their eyes away from the four babies snuggled up together in the Moses basket beside them.

They describe the girls as their New Year miracles — and it’s easy to see why. For Heidi, Annabelle, Hannah and Jessica have made British medical history.

They are the first set of quads made up of two sets of identical twins born in Britain — the odds of this happening are ten million to one.

Until their four tiny daughters were born last Sunday, the couple hadn’t dared to assume they would arrive into the world safely, let alone with four sets of such powerful lungs between them.

Bleary-eyed but smiling, Lisa, 35, says: ‘We’ve been through so much to have these babies — we’ve suffered miscarriages and so many disappointments.

‘When we heard we were expecting four, and that the risks to their health were so high with it being a multiple pregnancy, we didn’t dare to imagine the day we’d see them all. But looking at them now, it seems real and totally fantastic.’

The Kelly quads, like most quadruplets, were conceived through IVF, on Sean and Lisa’s third attempt. The couple had desperately wanted a sibling for their eight-year-old son, Cameron.

Had the babies been conceived naturally, there would have been a one in 70 million chance of two sets of identical twins being born. Four little sisters is probably not what young Cameron had in mind at first, but since they were born he has barely left their side.

‘He is over the moon with them,’ says Sean. ‘Lisa and I have trouble telling them apart, and remembering which nappies we’ve changed and which ones we haven’t. But Cameron is keeping us in order. He’s completely besotted, as are we.’

The girls were born by Caesarean section at the Victoria Royal Infirmary in Newcastle, an hour after Lisa’s waters broke at 31.5weeks.

For the babies’ safety, had she not gone into labour, doctors would have induced her at 32 weeks, on New Year’s Eve.

‘Despite all the risks involved in multiple pregnancies, mine has been problem-free,’ she says. ‘In fact, it’s been easier than when I was having only one.

‘Quadruplets are usually so premature I never thought I’d make it to 31.5weeks, and that they’d all be born at such healthy weights.’

Heidi and Annabelle each weighed 3lb 3oz, Hannah was 2lb 11oz, and Jessica 2lb 10oz. Lisa was given a steroid injection at 25 weeks to help the babies’ lungs develop.

Now, all four can breathe unaided and are ‘fighting fit and giving no cause for concern’. At this age, they are still prone to infection and are on a precautionary course of antibiotics.

Sean says: ‘The C-section was over in minutes, and they took them out so quickly they couldn’t say for sure which baby was twinned with which.

‘We won’t know until we get blood test results when they are about ten weeks old, but for now we’re assuming Heidi and Annabelle are twins because they weighed exactly the same and look alike, and Hannah and Jessica, the smaller two, are also twins.’

Lisa adds: ‘We’re already used to thinking of them that way, so it’ll be strange if we’re wrong. Not that it matters, really. They’re all sisters, and they’ve all got the same little temper — which is a daunting thought at this stage.’

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... z0bSF1fHRh
 
rynner2 said:
And not too far from here...

Twins see in 101st New Year

By JOHN COLES

BRITAIN’S oldest twins celebrate their 101st birthday today.
Last night identical sisters Betty Richards and Jenny Pelmore were in a party mood as they saw in the New Year.
....
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... 084821.ece
Sadly...
New Year's Day twin dies in Cornwall aged 102

A woman who was believed to be one of the oldest twin sisters in Britain has died in Cornwall at the age of 102.

Betty Richards, who lived in Feock about a mile from her twin Jenny Pelmore, celebrated her last birthday on New Year's Day.

The pair were delivered by a doctor who arrived on horseback.

Mother-of-two Mrs Richards, who lived in Cornwall for more than 50 years, had said keeping active was the secret to her long life.

Widow Mrs Richards, who trained as a teacher and later became a beekeeper, had two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The twins, who were born about 30 minutes apart, were delivered in Manchester and grew up in Kent with their three siblings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/8557488.stm
 
Parents of twins more likely to divorce, finds research for Tamba
Rosemary Bennett , Social Affairs Correspondent

Parents with twins are more likely to end up divorced, broke and out of work, according to the first national research on the chaos caused by multiple births. This is despite such parents starting out generally better off, older and more likely to be married than those who have their babies one at a time.

The research, which tracked 18,500 families, found that married couples were 17 per cent more likely to divorce if they had twins or triplets rather than several children with gaps in between.

The impact on family finances is even more pronounced. Two thirds of multiple-birth families said that they were significantly financially worse off after their babies were born, compared with 40 per cent of other parents.

Nine months after giving birth, mothers of twins and triplets were 20 per cent less likely to have returned to work than mothers of single babies, the cost of childcare being largely to blame, the researchers said.

Among lower-income groups, the poorest quarter of families with multiple births lived off £181 a week compared with £192 among poor families with single-birth children.

Another significant finding was that 55 per cent of twins are born when there are already other children in the family. Researchers said most families want, and plan for, just two children.

The proportion of multiple births has soared as a result of IVF and women giving birth when they are older, according to the research. One in 65 births now results in twins or triplets compared with one in 100 in 1970.

The research was conducted by Stephen McKay, Professor of Social Research at the University of Birmingham. It was commissioned by Tamba, the Twins and Multiple Births Association, which said it showed that families with multiple births needed more help, such as a grant at the time of the birth to pay for extra equipment.

Professor McKay said he had not expected the impact of having twins or triplets to be so dramatic. “One of the most surprising new findings is that twins start from quite a good situation with older parents who are married and better off than the average parents. That should give them an advantage. But they are very quickly significant worse off,” he said.

etc...

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life ... 063124.ece
 
rynner said:
Birthday twins – with a difference

BIRMINGHAM Marcia and Millie Biggs, are twin sisters, but one is black and the other is white. Born within minutes of each other, Millie has inherited the genes and dark skin of her 40-year-old Jamaican father, Michael, while Marcia has the paler complexion of their mother, Amanda.

Mrs Biggs, 39, from Erdington, Birmingham, said: “They looked alike when they were born. It was only when they were a few weeks old we started noticing differences.” The pair, who celebrated their first birthday yesterday, were conceived after IVF treatment and delivered by Caesarean section at Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 028663.ece
Let lessons begin: 'Million-to-one' black and white twins Marcia and Millie off to school for the very first time
By Andy Dolan
Last updated at 3:53 AM on 14th September 2010

When twins Marcia and Millie Biggs start school today, the teachers will have no trouble telling them apart.
In a million to one chance, Marcia was born with their mother Amanda’s fair complexion and golden brown hair, while Millie takes after their father – who is of Jamaican origin – with her tight curls and darker skin.

The four-year-olds were pictured as they tried on uniforms before their first day at Osborne Junior and Infant School in Erdington, Birmingham.

Their mother Amanda, 42, says people still can't believe the pair are twin sisters - including their old nursery teachers.
Amanda, a former Argos worker from Erdington, Birmingham, said: 'When they were growing up Millie was more timid and clingy and if anyone came to say hello she would take a while to say anything, but over the last couple of years she has come out of her shell a bit.
'Marcia is a bit bossier and is a bit more outgoing - she's a cheeky little monkey.
'Everybody is always amazed by how beautiful they have both become, and people still just can't believe they're related, let alone sisters.
'I still get the same puzzled looks and questions just like I did three years ago.
'Even teachers at nursery refused to believe they were sisters.
'A couple could of the staff could see they were related, but some just wouldn't have it - but I've become used to that after four years.
'Millie has become a little bit darker, and her hair is curlier and tighter, whereas Marcia's hair is more of a golden brown.

'Most parents say they can't wait for their kids to go to school, and even though I was really proud of them, I couldn't stop crying because I had spent so much time with them both.
'I've devoted my whole life to looking after them and I've treasured seeing them grow up.
'Millie will be more observant, but it will also take her longer to get to know people, whereas Marcia will go with the flow and be a bit more aware.
'They both love their reading and Marcia loves her 'Dora the Explorer' books, so they should both settle in well.'

Amanda and Michael, a panel beater, had been together 10 years when they conceived the girls through IVF treatment.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0zUkagyEP
 
World's oldest twins say secret to life is joie de vivre, sport and the odd tipple
The world's oldest twins, a pair of French sisters who turned 98 on Thursday, put their longevity down to joie de vivre, or quite simply enjoying life.
By Henry Samuel in Paris
Published: 11:10PM BST 23 Sep 2010

Raymonde and Lucienne Wattelade, who are officially recognised as the world's oldest twins by the Guiness World Records, said the other secret to long life was regular sport.

Both were in the French gymnastics team in the 1930s and continue to dance waltzes as the local casino in Saint-Georges-de-Didonne, south-western France.

The pair, in perfect health, have lived together in a family home for the past five years and are partial to tarot card reading and their favourite tipples: pastis for Raymonde and whisky for Lucienne.

Born on 23 September 1912, the twins have been married a total of four times, have between them four children, seven grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. Raymonde worked for the French nuclear energy commission and Lucienne was a housewife.

They said their most painful memory was seeing their father leave for the First World War and their mother in tears.

But they have no regrets.

"We live in the present, it's pointless thinking about the past or the future - we're still 20 (in our heads)," said Lucienne, who is ten minutes younger than her sister.

Above all, laughter was the key to a good life, she added. "If you don't laugh, you don't live."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ipple.html
 
Ena Pugh and Lily Millward see own names on 1911 Census

The world's oldest twins have been shown a 100-year-old census with their names on it.
Farmer's daughters Ena Pugh and Lily Millward were just one when their parents completed the questionnaire in 1911.

The sisters, from Powys, were named the oldest twins in the world by Guinness World Records in November.

Not many people are able to see their own names on the census record as they are kept confidential for 100 years.
The sisters were shown the 1911 document at Brecon Library as officials raise awareness that households need to complete this year's census on 27 March.
They said from the handwriting it was their mother Laura who had completed the form a century ago.
Mrs Pugh said: "I think it's mum's [writing], I don't think dad used to write a lot.

"There's the name of Cyril, our eldest brother, and Gwyn, our other brother.
"Things have changed such a lot since we were young - I had to leave school at 14 to go and work on the farm.
"Everything is changing all the time - every day, every year."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-12861094

I very much doubt I'll ever see my name on the census - the first time I appear should be on the 1951 census. My chances of lasting till 2051 are pretty slim! :(
 
Now that's an arresting sight! The identical twins on police patrol who have criminals looking twice
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:20 PM on 7th April 2011

Identical twin WPC's are stamping out double trouble now they are pounding the beat together.
Sister act Toni and Terri Lines, 40, who have both served several years with Avon and Somerset Constabulary, have been stationed on the same beat for the first time.
The pair have even developed a 'good cop, bad cop' reputation, with Toni experienced in community policing while Terri has a background in tough emergency response.

The pair, who both still live with their parents in Charlton Horethorne, admit they often get mistaken for one another.
Toni said: 'We're so used to people coming up to us and thinking we're the other one that we often let them talk to us and then pass the message on.
'It seems to be the best way of not confusing the matter.
'It does confuse some people when they think they've just seen you in one place and then see you moments later somewhere else. 8)
'We have always worked well and complemented each other. There are benefits of us working together as we know each other inside out.'

Toni has been the neighbourhood beat manager for the Langport area for two-and-a-half years while Terri was part of the force response team.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1IvGer9E7
 
Eagle sisters fly high at Westminster
Angela and Maria Eagle, the first twins to sit in parliament together, say there'll be no sisterly favours when it comes to fighting their respective corners
Decca Aitkenhead guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 April 2011 20.30 BST

The Eagle twins have been in Westminster for a combined total of 33 years, and have held ministerial portfolios for most of them, yet for some reason neither sister has quite broken into the foreground of public consciousness. On the face of it, this would seem odd, for not only are they the first twins to sit in parliament together, but Angela is the first female MP to out herself – so you'd have thought they would scarcely have been able to help becoming political celebrities. Yet it doesn't take many minutes in their company to see why this was unlikely to happen.

Closer to Margaret Beckett than Mo Mowlam in manner, both are clearly more comfortable with the nuts and bolts of policy than the theatre of personality politics. Angela became an MP in 1992, but it was the election of her twin Maria in May 1997, and Angela's outing later that same year, that attracted media attention. They were never going to compete for the limelight amid all the peacocking psychodramas and spin of the New Labour years – and any sibling intrigue there might be between them was spectacularly eclipsed by the Miliband brothers' bitter fight to the top. And now that glamorous Old Etonians are back in charge of the country, the sisters' understated style – quiet, self-effacing and serious-minded to the point of stodgy – might have consigned them to the background for good.

But, instead, both now have shadow cabinet briefs – Angela as shadow chief secretary to the treasury, Maria as shadow transport secretary – the first sisters to sit around a Labour cabinet table together.

They seldom give joint interviews, and I get the impression that both would feel more comfortable debating a policy than talking about themselves. But I'm curious to know what it's like to be twins in parliament – not identical, but so alike in voice at least that afterwards, replaying the tape, I find it impossible to tell the two apart. I'm not the only one; Angela admits that she once phoned home and conducted a conversation with her own answer machine, mistaking her own recorded voice for her sister. :D

etc...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011 ... s-fly-high
 
Awesome foursome! Pair of twins in the same family beat 17m-to-one odds to share same birthday
By David Wilkes
Last updated at 12:16 AM on 18th April 2011

Parents often find it helpful to spread the cost of their children’s birthdays through the year, but that’s not an option for Tracey and Davood Bageban.
Against odds of 17million to one, their identical twin daughters, Dolcie and Elisia, share their birthday with the couple’s sons, Diego and Armani, who are also identical twins.
Mr and Mrs Bageban conceived both sets of twins naturally. Following the girls’ birth on February 27, three years to the day after the boys, Guinness World Records has confirmed that they are the only family in Britain to have two sets of identical twins born on the same day.

Mrs Bageban, 34, a psychology student, from Gateshead, said: ‘It’s such an incredibly rare thing to happen and I know I’m so lucky to have four such beautiful babies.’

Calculation of the mind-boggling odds was based on the starting point that one in every 64 UK births produces twins.
This figure is high because IVF is now more common and often produces multiple births. But only 30 per cent of twins are identical and the probability of two sets being born to one set of parents on the same date sends the odds soaring to 17million to one.
That makes it so rare that it would have been more likely for Mr and Mrs Bageban to have won the National Lottery – at 14million to one. 8)

Mr Bageban, 33, works long hours as a shop manager to provide for the family. The couple are already planning for a giant birthday party next February 27.

Mrs Bageban added: ‘It’s a bit of a mad house these days, but when you see how well they all get along it’s brilliant.
‘Our two boys basically adore their little sisters. It’s so sweet. If one of the babies starts crying the lads follow me around saying "Baby crying" until they stop.

‘The boys are so protective of the girls and say they have one each – Dolcie belongs to Armani and Elisia is Diego’s. They love holding them and keep poking their little arms.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1JrW7y4db
 
Think this fits here.

Ireland's oldest quads mark 1981 birth
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 99930.html
OLIVIA KELLY

Wed, May 11, 2011

THE “DUFFY quads” from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, who are thought to be Ireland’s oldest quadruplets, last weekend celebrated their 30th birthdays.

The four, Thomas, Orla, Niall and John Paul, were born on May 7th, 1981, at Craigavon Area Hospital, to Elizabeth and Peadar Duffy. They were raised in Kilsaran, Castlebellingham, Co Louth, before moving to Monaghan along with their younger brother Conor (26) and older sister Roisin (31).

While twins ran in her family, Mrs Duffy said she had no idea she was expecting quadruplets.

“Back then, Peader and I thought we were expecting twins, not quadruplets. It was only a few days before the birth we found out we were going to have four babies.

“Dr David Lowry acted so swiftly at the time, and his team of midwives and nurses were absolutely fantastic. We cannot commend them highly enough. We are all happy and healthy and have so much to thank God for.”

Unusually for multiple births, the babies were born without any health problems. Their weights ranged from 3lb 2oz to 5lb 6oz.

While none of quadruplets or their siblings yet have children of their own, Orla Duffy said she can see the benefits of having more than one at a time.

“I think it might skip a generation, but I can see the convenience of an instant family. Not that I’d be looking to have four in one go! . . . We are all really proud of our parents and we thank them so much for sacrificing for us over the years, and also for their patience.”
 
Inseparable twin friars die hours apart, age 92

Identical twin Franciscan friars who rarely left each other's side from their births 92 years ago have died within hours of each other.
Julian and Adrian Riester went to school together, travelled together and joined the Franciscan order together.

The Buffalo-born brothers both died of heart failure, said a fellow friar in Florida, where they had lived since moving from New York state in 2008.
They spent much of their lives at St Bonaventure University in New York.
"It really is almost a poetic ending to the remarkable story of their lives," said St Bonaventure spokesman Tom Missel.
"Stunning when you hear it, but hardly surprising given that they did almost everything together," Mr Missel was quoted as saying by Associated Press (AP).

At St Bonaventure, they worked as carpenters and gardeners, gaining a reputation as handymen who could fix anything.
They lived in separate rooms at the St Bonaventure Friary but had one telephone line that rang into both, a colleague at the friary told AP.

The twins, originally named Jerome and Irving, never said who was born first. Upon joining the Franciscan order in their 20s, they took the names of saints.
"They had this intimate bond, in which neither was selfish at all," their cousin, Michael Riester, told the Buffalo News.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13651149
 
Benhaffaf boys lead parade as triplets and twins set record in Carrickmacross
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 69252.html
AOIFE CARR

Mon, Jun 06, 2011

THEY CAME in their twos and threes, beating the record for the most sets of multiples recorded in Ireland in the same place at the same time and raising more than €10,000 for charity.

In all, 252 sets of twins and triplets gathered in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, on Saturday afternoon for a parade led by Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf, the formerly conjoined twins who were separated at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London a year ago.

From 84-year-old identical twins Frank and Jimmy O’Byrne from Westport to five-week-old Ella and Daithí Marron from Carrickmacross, multiples of all ages walked, or were pushed, in a dazzling array of buggies along the 15-minute route of the parade, culminating in the town’s main square.

As the Benhaffafs led the parade around the corner into the town, a huge cheer went up from the waiting crowd.

Their mother Angie said that it was a very emotional day for her.

“I’m very proud Hassan and Hussein are leading the parade because I suppose we had so many sad days and so many days full of tears that it’s lovely to have something so positive and so happy.

“It’s lovely to meet other sets of twins and families that have shared in our journey. It’s a happy day,” she added.

Organised by the Carrickmacross Lions Club, this is the second year the parade has taken place.

It is the brainchild of Paddy Gollogly, who along with his twin brother Jimmy, cycled the route on a bicycle made for two.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Gollogly said he was on a high.

“It’s magical seeing so many twins in the same place. It brings a lump to your throat. All day in the town at every corner you’d see someone pushing a double pram,” he said.

Holding one of the Benhaffaf boys, he said: “It was just wonderful to have Angie and her family here today.”

Identical twins Brendan and Desmond Byrne from Carlow heard about the parade on the radio and knew they had to come.

“We’ll be 65 in September and we’re very close. We phone each other about 20 times a day and meet every day for lunch.

“We’ve had the same jobs all our lives as well – first as gardaí, now running a taxi company,” said Brendan.

“We do fight too,” he added wryly, observing this writer’s toddler twins engaged in warfare over the last sausage roll.

Bands and a funfair entertained the multiples and their families and a carnival atmosphere pervaded the town despite the grey skies.
 
Nate Smith loses $50,000 ice hockey trick shot prize

An 11-year-old boy has been denied a $50,000 prize for scoring an incredible ice hockey shot, after admitting his identical twin bought the entry ticket.
Nate Smith swept a puck into a tiny hole in the ice, from 89ft (27m) away.

But the firm that insured the game in Minneapolis, Minnesota, now says breaches of contract and "legal implications" mean it cannot pay out.
Instead, a $20,000 (£12,350) donation to youth hockey in the state will be made in the boys' names, it said.

The twin boys' father, Pat Smith, told the event organisers the following day that his sons had swapped places, because he could tell "they weren't feeling right about it".
Originally, Mr Smith said he was going to write Nate's name on the raffle ticket but he felt "honesty was the best policy".

Nick, the brother whose name was on the ticket, had gone outside with his friends when Mr Smith told his other son, Nate, to have a go at the trick shot.
Nate and Nick Smith play for the Owatonna Youth Hockey Association. The organisation will benefit from the $20,000 donation by Odds on Promotions.
"We greatly respect the eventual honesty of the Smith family," Mark Gilmartin, president of Odds On Promotions, said.

Mr Smith said the boys were disappointed not to receive the prize money but excited that youth hockey would benefit.
"They understand," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14752155
 
The two sets of twins born in different years: Parents welcome new arrivals as the nation greets 2012
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:53 AM on 3rd January 2012

They are set to share many experiences over their lives - but a birthday won't be one of them.
Two sets of twins were born as the nation welcomed in 2012 - with one twin delivered before the clock struck 12, while another was born afterwards.

At the Women & Children's Hospital in Buffalo, New York, Ronan Rosputni was delivered at 11.37pm on December 31 2011, and his younger brother Rory arrived at 12.10am on January 1 2012.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Stephanie Peterson gave birth to son Beckett at 6.40 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and, six hours later, delivered his twin sister Freya - at 12.26 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
Beckett weighed 4 pounds, 11 ounces, while his sister weighed 5 pounds, 2.5 ounces.

'It was a great day to have a baby because everybody was in such a celebratory mood anyway,' their mother Stephanie, who had been given a February die[?!] date, told CBS News.
'When Freya was finally born the nurses had made confetti and threw confetti all over and everybody was clapping, so it was a party when she came.'

In the New York births, Rory weighed in at 6 pounds and 15 ounces, an ounce heavier than his older brother - the boys share the same middle name, Stephen and arrived a few weeks earlier than expected.
'This is like a dream,' said Brighid Rosputni, mother of the twins, who had trouble wrapping her mind around the quirkiness of the births.
They have completely different birthdates and years,' Rosputni said. 'I don't know if it's ever happened. I'll have to do some research.'
Ronan was the last baby born in 2011 at the hospital -- and quite possibly in all of Western New York, although hospital officials couldn't confirm that Sunday.

The boys appear to be fraternal, not identical, twins: Ronan has auburn hair like his beaming mom, while Rory has darker hair like his proud dad, Thomas.
While twins sometimes are born on different days, personnel at Women & Children's Hospital couldn't recall another twin birth in different years.

Kathy Bean, a charge nurse, said: 'It's unique, they definitely will have a story for the rest of their lives.'
And the story of their birth was rather dramatic.
Mother Brighid Rosputni's water broke Saturday morning almost foiling her participation in her sister's wedding.

But the 30-year-old was undeterred, she said: 'All I wanted to do was see my sister walk down the aisle.
'We were dressed for a wedding. We made it to the church and sent our four kids to the reception and then came here.'

On top of that, their delivery was a little more complicated than usual.
Both babies came out feet first, known as breech birth.
But Brighid credited midwife Eileen Stewart with helping her get through the complications without any painkillers or labor-inducing drugs.

Now the family have to work out how to organise birthday celebrations for the brothers.
The Rosputni's have already proposed one birthday party for the twins on the same day in the same year.
They will be welcomed at home by their already large family comprised one sister, Ava, 6, and three brothers, Owen, 5, Eamon, 4, and Afton, 2.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1iR4322hJ
 
'Oldest living twins' aged 102 in Aberdeenshire

Two 102-year-old sisters who live in Aberdeenshire have been recognised as the world's oldest living twins by the Guinness World Records.
Edith Ritchie and Evelyn "Evie" Middleton were born in 1909 and reached their latest milestone in November last year.
The twins, whose maiden name is Rennie, live together in Bonnyton House care home in Ellon.
Neither of them has ever travelled outside of the UK.

Although not identical, their mother would dress the girls in the same clothes.
After leaving school the pair worked on farms before starting their own families.

Evelyn married William Middleton and had four children, 12 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.
Edith married Nathaniel Ritchie and had four children, nine grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.
When asked her secret to a long life, Edith said: "Simple living, hard work and a good husband."

Guinness World Records editor-in-chief Craig Glenday said: "Edith and Evelyn are a remarkable pair.
"When they were born the likes of Mark Twain and Florence Nightingale were still alive and we had yet to conquer the South Pole.
"They're not just the oldest in the UK, they hold the world title. They've clearly benefited from good genes and a solid lifelong friendship that only twins can truly understand."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-n ... d-16932345
 
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