I was pretty impressed, in September, to read that a 99-year-old Charedi woman had died in Jerusalem leaving 1,400 descendants. She had 11 children herself, and by the time she died, had great-great-grandchildren.

Surely some kind of a record, no?

But this week, apparently, we lost the greatest matriarch of them all. Yitta Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor from New York, died with no less than 2,500 descendants (and at 94, got there even quicker than the Israeli woman)! She had 17 children herself, and also had great-great-grandchildren.

Kind of puts things in perspective for most people in the West where two-children families are the norm, and most people can expect to have four grandchildren.

The downside? Apparently only "several hundred people" turned up to Mrs Schwartz's funeral - a pretty poor showing considering the size of her family.

I guess that's what happens if you don't keep up with all those birthday cards...... (Eight birthdays a day, that is, a colleague notes.)