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List of multiple births

Wikimedia list article

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ6629549
Source-derived summary

This is a list of multiple births, consisting of notable higher order (4+) multiple births and pregnancies. Twins and triplets are sufficiently common to have their own separate articles. With the use of reproductive technology such as fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization (IVF) such births have become increasingly common. This list contains only multiple births which have some claim to notability, such as being the first recorded in a country, the first to survive to adulthood in a country, the heaviest, lightest or longest lived (globally), or having had substantial media coverage.

Cases by number

Twins (2)

Triplets (3)

Quadruplets (4)

The Smith quadruplets, born 1750 in Kinsale, Ireland, to a fisherman's wife.

The Fisk quadruplets (born 26 August 1783), in Killingly, Connecticut, United States. Two boys (Ephraim and Joseph) and two girls (Keziah and Mary) all survived to adulthood.

Dominica, 1790: According to The Times, a Dr. Giuseppe of Dominica reported that an unnamed Afro-Dominican woman (enslaved servant) living on the estate of Thomas Jemmitt gave birth to four girls, three of them almost eighteen hours after the first was born. All survived birth.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “List of multiple births” is wikimedia list article. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through List, multiple and births, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1750, 1783, 1790—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, List, multiple and births is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “wikimedia list article” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6629549. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1750, 1783 and 1790.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
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  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “List of multiple births”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow List of multiple births primary sources, List of multiple births archive and List research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “List of multiple births”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from List of multiple births” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.