Is this the world's oldest family? Siblings have incredible collective age of 1,115
IS this the world's oldest family?
A group of 16 siblings from a British family have an incredible collective age of 1,115-years-old between them.
The 10 sisters and six brothers from the Wright family have 44 children, 46 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren between them.
They grew up together in their three-bedroom family home in Melton, near Leicester, with their parents James Ebenezer and Florence.
It's great being part of such a large family
Recalling life growing up, 67-year-old John Wright said: "We are a close family and always have been.
"You don't have much choice in the matter when you live in a three-bedroomed house.
"It was one bedroom for the boys, which was tight enough, and then one for the girls, which was pretty much every inch taken.
"We didn't have much but we were happy enough. In those days, everyone just got on with things."
The siblings in descending order of age, are Ken, 80, Marion, 78, Joyce, 77, Leslie, 75, Joan, 74, Malcolm, 73, Margery, 72, Kathleen, 69, Barbara, 68, John, 67, Pat, 66, Ellen, 65, twins David and Sylvia, 64, Janet, 62, and Clifford, 61.
They were all born between 1934 and 1952 and the siblings had another brother called James who tragically died aged only six months in 1933.
The Wrights came forward after another family from their county, the Cleavers, claimed they were the oldest with a collective age of 1,092-years-old.
John, who still lives in Melton, said: "When I heard about the claim by this other family I chatted to my sister Marion about it.
"She is the one in the family that is on the ball with regard to all this sort of carry on, and she immediately knew we could beat that."
Marion, whose surname became Sheppard after getting married, attributes the family's longevity down to something in the water.
She said: "When we were kids there was no tea or coffee or juice or anything like that.
"It was tap water in a bottle and you felt lucky to have that. I think because we drank so much water it kept us fit and healthy.
"We try to get together as many times as we can, but it's a bit harder for Clifford as he now lives in Australia.
"It's great being part of such a large family."
Guinness World Records spokesman Jamie Clarke said it did not monitor a record for 16 siblings but would accept an application from the Wright family.
It said the most relevant record category would be the highest combined age of nine living siblings.
That record is held by the Melis family from Italy who have a collection age of 828 years and 45 days old.
If the ages of the nine oldest Wright family members were combined that would leave them 162 years short of the record.
