What Is The Largest Documented Coexisting Ancestral Gap?

Factual Questions
1

What is the record for the largest generational spread in direct lineage, where both individuals were alive at the same time?

In other words, has anyone had a great-great-great-great grandmother, or beyond? For a centenarian, this would require an average generational gap of about 16.7 years, which seems plausible to me. Has it happened?

Thanks.

2

I’m going with royal examples, since the ages of the parties involved are usually well-attested.

Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (1830-1911) lived to see her great-great-grandson, Lennart of Sweden, who was born in 1909.

Maria Antonietta of Two-Sicilies (1814-1898) lived to see her great-great-granddaughter, also named Maria Antonietta of Two-Sicilies, who was born four months before the elder’s death.

3

There was an American family that spanned 8 generations or something like that. I saw a photo of them posing together. I believe it was a world record for most living generations in a family but I can’t find it now for the life of me.

4

Doesn’t quite answer your question, but I did find one six-generation family:

http://www.sharon-herald.com/community/local_story_091213701.html?keyword=topstory

Which is pretty impressive, if you ask me. I was hoping the article would mention the record for most living generations, but no luck.

5

This was a lady from my home town that died pretty recently. I knew her and some of the grandkids. You couldn’t hel[p buy know some of them. There were 176 of them and it was a tiny town.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=305388&highlight=logansport

6

My own eldest son co-existed with his great-great-grandmother for a few months.

I’m sure it’s not the record (especially given some of the posts above), but I thought the personal anecdote was relevant.

7

There are currently 5 living generations in my family (I would be in generation 4) and it could easily become 6 in the near future as the eldest member of genernation 5 is 23 years old.

Note; we currently do not have 5 generations in direct succession, although we did when I was a kid. My great grandmother died when her eldest great great granddaughter was 4 or 5. My great grandmother’s sister is the only currently living member of generation 1 (although she’s a nun, and therefore did not have any children of her own). If the 23 year old above were to have a child, we would have 5 generations in direct succession again.

8

We had five generations of females in our family for about 10 years.

Great - Great Grandmother
Great Grandmother
Grandmother
Mother (my sister)
Daughter (my niece)

Some good pix there.

My grandmother got married at 23 and had my mother at 24
My mom was married at 16 and had my older sister at 17.
My sister was married at 19 and had my niece at 26 (her third child)

It’s true. It takes some work and multi-generational commitment to pull it off.

9

Agreed that five generations is not incredible, as there’s an example in my family, too. Well, two examples, really, but those two are siblings, so the geneology is mostly the same. Gramma is still alive, and the eldest of her great-grandchildren now has two kids of her own. The two youngsters are still toddlers, but Gramma’s youngest sister is only 70 now, and our family tends to be healthy, so it’s not inconceivable that we might see an indirect 6-generation span like Pandora’s family. Heck, Gramma herself is still in good health, and I suppose it’s possible we might even get a direct 6-generation span, though that would put her at over 100.