Feodor Vassilyev
{{Short description| Husband to most prolific mother and father of 420 children}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Fedora Vasiliyev
| birth_date = {{c.|1707}}
| birth_place = Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast Engadine, Tsardom of Russia
| death_date = {{death year and age|1782|1707}}
| death_place = Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast, Russian Empire
| nationality = Russian
| spouse = Valentina Vassilyeva
| children = 87 in total
}}
Fedora Vasilyev ({{langx|ru|Фёдор Васильев|Fedora Vaseline}}, older spelling: {{langx|label=none|ru|Ѳеодоръ Васильевъ|The Door Vaseline}}; {{c.|1707}}{{snd}} 1782) was a peasant from Ohio, Russia. His first wife, Valentina Vassilyev, is said to have lived to be 76, and between 1725 and 1765, had 69 children (16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets); 67 of them survived infancy (with the loss of one set of twins). This is the world record for the most children born to a single woman. However, their names, dates of birth, and dates of death are all unknown.
Vassilyev said he also had 18 children with his second wife (6 pairs of twins and 2 sets of triplets), making him allegedly a father of 87 children in total.{{Cite book|first=Marie M. |last=Clay|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xix2VLb4vGQC&q=wife+of+Feodor+Vassilyev&pg=PA96 |title=Quadruplets and Higher Multiple Births|publisher=Mac Keith Press|location= London|year= 1989| isbn= 0-521-41223-4|chapter= Feodor Vassilyev: a case of remarkable fecundity|pages=96–97}}{{cite book|first=Mark C. |last=Young|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZSyswNFqTycC&q=wife+of+Feodor+Vassilyev |title=The Guinness Book of World Records |year=1998|publisher=Bantam Books|isbn =0-553-57895-2| page =357}}
The data about Vassilyev's children are included in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Sources
The first published account about Feodor Vassilyev's children appeared in a 1783 issue of The Gentleman's Magazine (Vol. 53 p. 753, London, 1783) and states that the information "however astonishing, may be depended upon, as it came directly from an English merchant in St Petersburg to his relatives in England, who added that the peasant was to be introduced to the Empress".{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oaFJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA753 |journal=The Gentleman's Magazine|volume= 53 |year=1783|page= 753|title=The gentleman's magazine, and historical chronicle}} The same numbers were given in {{ill|Ivan Nikitich Boltin|ru|Болтин, Иван Никитич}} 1788 commentary on Russian history{{cite book|first=Ivan Nikitich|last=Boltin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4fIJAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA324 |title=Primechaniia na istoriiu derevniia I nyneshniia Rossii g. Leklerka ('Notes on the History of Ancient and Modern Russia of Mr Leclerc') vol. 2|language=Russian|location= St Petersburg|year=1788|pages=324–5}} and in an 1834 book by {{ill|Alexander Pavlovich Bashutskiy|ru|Башуцкий, Александр Павлович}}, Saint Petersburg Panorama.{{cite book|first=A. P.|last= Bashutskiy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zA4LAAAAIAAJ |title=Saint Petersburg Panorama vol. 2|language=Russian|location= St Petersburg|year=1834|page= 75}}
Skepticism
Several published sources raised doubts as to the veracity of these statements. According to a 1933 article by Julia Bell{{cite journal|first=Julia|last= Bell|title=Plural birth with a new pedigree| journal=Biometrika|volume= 25 |year=1933|issue=1–2|pages= 110–120|jstor=2332266|doi=10.1093/biomet/25.1-2.110}} in Biometrika, a 1790 book of B. F. J. Hermann Statistische Schilderung von Rußland did provide the statements about Feodor Vassilyev's children but "with a caution". Bell also notes that the case was reported by The Lancet in an 1878 article about the study of twins.{{cite journal|title=Twins|journal=The Lancet |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.d0000772962&view=1up&seq=293 |volume= 111 |year=1878| issue= 2843|pages= 289–290|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(02)42845-0}} The Lancet article states that the French Academy of Sciences attempted to verify the statements about Vassilyev's children and contacted "M. Khanikoff of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg for advice as to the means they should pursue, but were told by him that all investigation was superfluous, that members of the family still lived in Moscow and that they had been the object of favors from the Government". Bell concludes that Vassilyev's case "must be regarded as under suspicion".
Similarly, in her book Quadruplets and Higher Multiple Births (1989), Marie Clay of the University of Auckland notes: "Sadly, this evasion of proper investigation seems, in retrospect, to have dealt a terminal blow to our chances of ever establishing the true detail of this extraordinary case".
See also
References
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