The Duggars of 1937
When the Duggar family began filming for their first TV series, they were "17 Kids and Counting." Now let's take a trip back in time.
The year was 1937--four years before Grandma Duggar was born, and at the tail end of the Great Depression. A family by the name of Rancourt had just moved to Winterport, Maine, to run a 100-acre farm. The parents' names were Alice and Harry, and the children, well, we won't name them all here. The oldest was Dorthy, the youngest was Geraldine, and there were fifteen in between. Seventeen kids and counting.
While large families were not uncommon 70 years ago, this particular clan bears a striking resemblance to the Duggar family. The children were not homeschooled, but they made up nearly 80% of the one-room schoolhouse that they attended.
Just like Michelle, Alice Rancourt believed that children were a blessing, not a burden. “I have found that a mother can scratch for a dozen just as well as she can for 10,” Alice told Bangor Daily News in 1938. “I wouldn’t swap one of my children for all the money in the world.”
“[Mom] said that having children helped keep her young,” says Geraldine Gavard Rancourt in a recent article. Sound like anyone else you know?
The Duggars also share in the Rancourts' love for service. Mrs. Rancourt was always eager to provide food to neighborhood children who, due to harsh economic times, were often forced to go without. But the Rancourts were by no means rich. They, too, had to make sacrifices, but the kids did not whine about hand me downs, and they took pride in their chores.
Just like the Duggar home, there was no shortage of love around the Rancourt farm. As Jim Bob and Michelle have displayed time and time again: love doesn't divide; it multiplies.
To read more about the Rancourts, visit Bangor Daily News.
Aside from the Duggars, what is the largest family you know of?
The year was 1937--four years before Grandma Duggar was born, and at the tail end of the Great Depression. A family by the name of Rancourt had just moved to Winterport, Maine, to run a 100-acre farm. The parents' names were Alice and Harry, and the children, well, we won't name them all here. The oldest was Dorthy, the youngest was Geraldine, and there were fifteen in between. Seventeen kids and counting.
While large families were not uncommon 70 years ago, this particular clan bears a striking resemblance to the Duggar family. The children were not homeschooled, but they made up nearly 80% of the one-room schoolhouse that they attended.
Just like Michelle, Alice Rancourt believed that children were a blessing, not a burden. “I have found that a mother can scratch for a dozen just as well as she can for 10,” Alice told Bangor Daily News in 1938. “I wouldn’t swap one of my children for all the money in the world.”
“[Mom] said that having children helped keep her young,” says Geraldine Gavard Rancourt in a recent article. Sound like anyone else you know?
The Duggars also share in the Rancourts' love for service. Mrs. Rancourt was always eager to provide food to neighborhood children who, due to harsh economic times, were often forced to go without. But the Rancourts were by no means rich. They, too, had to make sacrifices, but the kids did not whine about hand me downs, and they took pride in their chores.
Just like the Duggar home, there was no shortage of love around the Rancourt farm. As Jim Bob and Michelle have displayed time and time again: love doesn't divide; it multiplies.
To read more about the Rancourts, visit Bangor Daily News.
Aside from the Duggars, what is the largest family you know of?
The Duggars of 1937The Duggars of 1937
