Be Fruitful and Multiply: Woman dies with 2,000 Living Descendants
I am both fascinated and touched by this New York Times Story about Yitta Schwartz, who when she died last month at the age of 93, possibly had 2,000 living descendants. According to the article, Mrs. Schwartz, a member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, had 15 children, more than 200 grandchildren, and too many great and great great grandchildren to count. I don't want to plagiarize the article, but I highly recommend that you read it yourself, to see this remarkable story of a Holocaust survivor and her family.
As far as the estate planning angle? Just imagine if she in her will made a class gift to her grandchildren, or to her great grandchildren. For example, if her will said, "I give $100 to each of my grandchildren." Or, even if she gave property to her children or grandchildren on a per stiprital basis, in which younger generations stand in the shoes of their deceased parents. It would be quite a task for whoever is administering the estate to categorize and find all of those relatives. Then again, from the article it appears as if almost all of them are living in the same area.
Oh my god! Reminds me of a story I heard that something like 1/8 th of the world's population is related to Genghis Khan