Folklore holds that a 7th son of a 7th son has “special powers.”
I am just wondering if there are any real-life examples of such an occurrence. Clearly it would be rare, especially today with smaller families more common. But with the billions of humans who have lived and died, a 7th son of a 7th son must have been born at least a few times. I’m not interested in the “special powers” hoo-hah, just if there are any documented cases - especially of the variety mentioned in the cite above, that is, with no intervening female siblings.
Heck, I’m not sure what the exact count would be once you remove the very-few sisters, but I know a megafamily where the two parents were from megafamilies; the three groups of children were at least a total count of 9 and none reached 3 daughters, my classmate was one of the 2 daughters out of 10. Since we don’t have that 7th son thing we just saw it as a curiosity. My own dad didn’t end up having enough siblings for that because Nature intervened, but his dad was 7th of 10 (6th of 8 if you only count the boys) and dad was 3rd of 5 (3 of 4 if you remove my aunt).
Back when a woman who didn’t die in childbirth could spend more time pregnant than not, having that many children wasn’t terribly uncommon; what was uncommon was having them reach adulthood. From what I’ve heard of the 7th son idea, the second is not part of the requirement.
Perry Como, (1912–2001), 20th century American crooner
Lyle Lewis Aley, (1914-1963) pioneer radio announcer
Len Dawson, (1935-present), quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs
The first I ever heard of the seventh son thing was back fifty years ago when I was a child. There was a news story, from the UK I think, about a guy who was the seventh son of a seventh son, and people were coming to him for advice or blessings or something, because of his supposed powers. As said, it can happen but is rarer now because of smaller families.
I shudder to think, but how many sons do the Duggars have, or their ilk?
Georgie Fame!
Curiously, or maybe not so curiously given this performance, it only managed to reach number 25 in the UK charts. I’d say it was SFW but it includes the Pan’s People dance troupe in skimpy costumes.
My maternal grandmother was the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. My great-great grandfather returned from the Civil War and bought land at the edge of town, expecting to have sons and reap the postwar expansion. The economy went bust instead; he kept contributing only X chromosomes; and the family fortune never materialized. But we’ve always carried an air of lost gentility.
At least as far as Perry Como is concerned that is a myth. Como was a seventh child but only one of his elder siblings, Domenico, was a brother. (from Perry Como: A Biography and Complete Career Record by Malcolm Macfarlane,Ken Crossland.)
Following the links to the source material for Len Dawson in the wiki article we find that he is the “seventh son of seven sons”, which I interpret to mean only that he had six older brothers but not that his father was also a seventh son. So, only part way there.
When I was a kid (this is back in the late 50s or early 60s) my minister was one. Because of this, when he was born his parents didn’t give him a first or a middle name - just initials. So his official name was D. W. White.
My grandfather was a 7th son. I don’t know if he was a 7th son of a 7th son.
My great-grandfather was a fire and brimstone preacher and people wanted my granddad to pray with them or lay hands. It really bugged him growing up. He avoided the church scene after becoming an adult. Mostly because he had so much religion shoved down his throat and also the 7th son thing.
So the chances would just be .5^14 times the proclivity to have at least seven children, right? I can’t imagine that’s to uncommon. The modern trend for smaller families is relatively recent.
I’d say it was SFW but it includes the Pan’s People dance troupe in skimpy costumes.