With an average of around seven children, Amish families are hefty by modern standards.
Farm families tend to be the biggest. A dozen or more children is not rare.
But the largest Amish family ever? Read on to learn about one possibility:
John Troyer, who lived near Kokomo, Indiana, had an unusually large family, perhaps the largest of all time among the Amish or Mennonites. John was first married to Catherine Schrock who bore him twelve children. Following her death he married her cousin Caroline (Schrock) Kendall, a young widow with two children. John and Caroline in turn had seventeen additional children. This made a total of 31 children.
No word on whether John needed name tags to keep track of them all.
(Source: Joseph Stoll, “Amish and Mennonite Family Names”, Family Life, March 1969)
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24 responses to Largest Amish family ever?
Ha! What a wonderful blended family story. I love it! My husband and I thought we were doing good by raising five children. Can you imagine the number of grandchildren?
Growing up in the Kokomo area I am surprised that I had never heard of this before. Looking in the SAGA databases, I only see 22 of his children listed. Troyer is a somewhat common name in the area, but not nearly as common as you would think given 31 children.
I’m amazed they found time for intimacy. I have three kids and its hard….
Hey, Kokomo is my old stomping grounds! Their names sound familiar, actually. My mother’s mother was a Troyer, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re related. Um…well, duh, all the Amish and Mennonites are related one way or another. lol!
Hey Reid,
Interesting, I wish I had a date on that.
Since Kokomo, despite its small size, is actually a mid-1800s community, it could have been far in the past. I wonder if there was another John Troyer with a large family?
I’m curious, is Troyer common in the non-Amish community?
Marcia, Dave, would be a challenge. I’ve heard it described that in these really big families people tend to get closer to the more immediate siblings than to parents. Makes sense.
Joan, yes these could be cousins!
I understand from local Amish that the Milroy Indiana and Kokomo groups are closely related to each other, as well as the group in West Union, OH. There are a number of Troyers in Milroy. One of the families with this name owns a bulk food store off the state highway.
It is kind of a misnomer to say the group is from Kokomo. Kokomo itself is probably 40,000 to 50,000 people, it is mainly a auto factory town. The Amish live mostly in north eastern Howard County and southern Miami county. Troyer is a somewhat common name around home as are many other Amish/Mennonite names like Otto, Swartzendruber, Bontrager, Miller, Hochstedler, Sommers, Yoder, …
The local Amish community moved from Holmes county, OH to the Howard-Miami area in 1848. I have a whole hand-written “History of the Amish in Howard and Miami Counties” somewhere at home, I can get you a copy if you like.
The John Troyer I am referring to lived between 1830 and 1912 and apparently moved to Howard County sometime before 1874.
Largest Amish family ever?
John Troyer was a brother to my great-grandmother. When looking up information about him for my family history, I was amazed at the size of his family. Here’s his obituary as published in the Gospel Herald magazine:
Text of the obituary as it appears in the March 21, 1912 Gospel Herald:
Troyer.-John Troyer was born in Holmes So., O., July 14, 1830; died in Howard Co., Ind., Mar. 5, 1912; aged 81 y. 7 m. 21 d. At the age of 22 he was married to Catharine Schrock. To this union were born 12 children, four preceded him to the spirit world. In April, 1873, he with his family moved to Howard Co., Ind. In May, 1874, his first wife died. Later he was united in marriage with Caroline Kendall. To this union were born 17 children. Seven of these preceded him to the spirit world. Bro. Troyer united with the Amish Mennonite Church in his early life, and lived a consistent life until death. The family lost a loving father, the church a wise counsellor, the community a good neighbor. He leaves a wife, 18 children, 2 step children, 60 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, 3 brothers, a sister, and a host of relatives and friends to mourn his departure, but their loss is his eternal gain. Funeral Mar. 8 at the Mennonite Church, where a very large concourse of people had gathered to pay their last tribute of respect. Services conducted by Bros. E. A. Mast (Text, II Tim. 4:6-8) and N. M. Slabaugh (Text, Job 5:26). Burial in the Mast Cemetery. Transcriber’s note: counsellor is not a typo, it is spelled as written.
Largest Amish family ever?
Reid, Linda, thanks for sharing this info, very interesting. Reid I may be up for one of those sometime, just curious, how large is it?
I am married to the grandson of the 31st child of John Troyer’s family. Yes it is true he raised 31 children, most of us are still Mennonite but not conservative. We often wonder what happened to all the cousins and where they have all moved off to and how many of them are there.
Calleen thanks for commenting. Constructing that family tree would not be a small project, I imagine.
This John Troyer was my great grandfather. As you see in the obituary 11 of the children died at birth or shortly after.So 20 children actually grew up- that was still a lot! In 1984 a genealogy book written by Hilda Troyer ,was published. it was a lt of work and took years to gather the information. It was called Our John Troyer- 61 Feet Under the Table”.
Calleen’s Father in Law, the 31st child, was a doctor and he and his family spent many years as missionaries.
My Dad was also named John Troyer-he died in 1984. His father was Joseph.
Largest Amish family ever?
Just a correction on the book compiled by Hilda Troyer- It was subtitled “68 Feet Under the Table”. I am currently researching the Troyer family and this book is a good source of information.
Deb, I would like to hear about your research into this large family. My husband grandfather was Dr.George Troyer, he spent many years on the misson field as did his oldest son Nortell. I am just amazed when I look at the pictures of Caroline and John in old family photos how to cloth, feed all those children. I realize that many where married and in their own homes but children come home for Sunday meals, picking of the fields etc. I have heard stories at family reunions of Grandma Caroline bakeing bread 7 loaves at a time in outside woodburning ovens during the summers. This was in the Howard-Miami area of Indiana.
Largest Amish family ever?
wives
Hi i live in australia and ide like to no if u r the same as brigam youngs church how many wives do the men ha e thanks
I know of 1 Amish family with 18 children from a single set of parents. Just across the hill from them is a family with 19 children!
In the community I was in, there is a couple that were widowers and married. They had 2 children together for a combined total of 22. There was a marriage of step-siblings.
Interesting
I guess they have a lot of help around the house! Many hands make light work…:)
Ancestry
@Reid Hochstedler- Do you still have a copy of the book? I am hoping by some miracle you will get this comment
My family stemms from Amish and Mennonite in Howard and Miami counties (we are of the Absolom King family among others of course)and I would love to read the book. I will gladly pay for copies and shipping.
Coincidentally, we also have Schrock and Kendall names in the family. There are two cemeteries with their names not too far from one another in (I believe) Amboy, IN. They are filled with my ancestors. Anyone know if these are the same Schrocks and Kendalls?
Largest Amish family ever?
RE: Ancestry
@Katie King,
Sorry, I don’t check this thread very often. My grandmother’s sister married a King. Her name was Leona, her husband’s name was Milphert King. Any relation to you?
Regarding the small booklet I have, if you send me an e-mail, reidhoch@yahoo.com, I can get you a copy.
Troyer/Shrock/Kendall families
Calleen – My husband’s family has Schrock and Kendall family names in it. I was wondering if you know more about the connection of those families. I can’t find a connection on Ancestry.com and was wondering if you know. Both are from the Liberty, Greentown and Amboy areas. One ancester is Nathanial Kendall from Liberty, and his grand daughter Kathleen Kendall married into the King family from Amboy. If anyone reading this has any information, I would appreciate hearing from you.
Largest Amish family ever?
Schrock and Kendall
Lisa, just following up on your question, I will check with my hubby when he gets home this evening. I do believe I have heard the Kendall name at reuions, Caroline or Catherine was a Kendall before they married Great Grandpa John. As for the Schrocks, yes to that name also espically around Amboy, Greentown, Kokomo area.
therese:To answer your questions me are not at all the same as the Mormans, Mennonites have one wife at a time. John Troyer married Cahterine first then she passed. The church Bishop’s saw that John needed a wife and Caroline needed a husband, the rest is story. Each was married to only one person at a time not several.
A good many of the family is buried in The Mast cemetery outside of Kokomo. There are several Troyers, Schrocks and a couple Kendalls rest there.In fact another name with Schrocks and Troyers is Sommers. many of these families have married second cousins or even thrid.
Largest Amish family ever?
Troyer/Sommers
Calleen. From reading your posts your husband and I are related. His Grandmother, Katie, and my mother, Esther, were sisters. They were both daughters of Daniel and Lizzie Sommers and both of them married Troyers. You mentioned Nortell and wondering if your husband was his son or from Dana or Weldon?
We lived in the Amboy/Wapecong area until the early 60s then moved to Goshen.
Daniel and Katie Troyer Sommers
Walter ,
Thats is great, you should come to the Sommers reunion the last full weekend in August. We meet in Sommercet at the community center, we are just cousins now that Clayton past last October from falling out of a tree at almost 98. Email me I can hook you up with Grace Whitehead for more information. Yes you are correct we are related. Great to hear from you.
Calleen
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