North Carolina family with 16 children

kinderfest

Jonathan Jasper “Jack” Sullivan married Bertha Phillips in early 1909. The North Carolina farm couple went on to have sixteen children — nine sons and seven daughters. Their names, in order, were…

  1. Cretta (born in 1910)
  2. Leland (1912)
  3. Rosa (1913)
  4. Woodrow (1916)
  5. Wilmar (1918)
  6. Joseph (1919)
  7. Dorothy (1921)
  8. Virginia (1923)
  9. Irving (1924)
  10. Blanche (1925)
  11. C.D. (1927)
  12. Geraldine (1928)
  13. Marverine (1930)
  14. Billy (1932)
  15. Tom (1934)
  16. Gene (1938)

Here’s more about Gene’s name:

Gene Autry Sullivan, the youngest of the children and the one who organizes the [family] reunion each year, said he was told he was named after legendary cowboy movie star Gene Autry “because his parents had run out of names by then.”

(The Sierra post includes a photo of Gene Autry.)

Source: Barnes, Keith. “The Sullivan family’s 16 children.” Wilson Times [North Carolina] 29 Aug. 2018.

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