Meet the Noonans, a family in the 1920s with thirteen kids – this family was so big that they even made the front cover of the newspaper in Boston!
The size of this family is clearly exceptional, since the average family in the ’20s had 2.3 children.
As a result of gaining so much attention from others, this family was asked to pose in front of a camera for Leslie Jones, who was a photographer working at Boston Herald-Traveler.
In these photos, we see the parents, an infant whose gender is unknown, ten girls, and two boys lined up in front of their house.
Just looking at the photo of their shoes makes me wonder how they managed to do various daily chores such as doing laundry and washing the dishes.
Can you even guess how much food the family would have had to buy?
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But, the next photo is the one that garnered all the attention –
It turns out that this family only had one car, so the Noonans had to develop a system to fit everyone inside the car.
As the photo shows, the tallest children piled in the very back, while the others slightly shorter than them sat in front. The very little ones sat right behind the parents.
Even though it is a bit concerning when it comes to safety, the photo of this family in a single car is still amazing.
Here’s another interesting photo of them, trying to fit everyone under one umbrella.
Clearly, it’s not working, but the smiles on each family member’s faces are priceless!
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According to Tip Hero, descendants of this family recognized the photos and reached out to share more information. Maralin Manning and John Noonan, who are actually featured in these photos, said that their family lived in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
The father in the photo, Maurice Noonan, was an immigrant from Ireland. With his wife, he ran a small pub called The Morning Glory; in addition, he worked to form unions in the wool industry.
Mabel Metcalf Noonan is the mother in the photo, who sadly passed away along with their youngest child four years these photos were taken.
Despite such tragedy, both Maralin and John said that Maurice did a fantastic job of taking care of his family – even when Mabel was gone.
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