Family Celebrate Birth Of First Baby Girl In More Than A Century

A family is celebrating after having the first baby girl for more than a century – defying incredible odds of 10,000 to one.

The Silverton clan have only had male offspring since 1913 but the unbelievable succession of 16 boys in four generations has finally been broken.

Couple Jeremy Silverton, 43, and Danielle Andrews, 36, welcomed a daughter called Poppy earlier this month.

She is the first Silverton female to be born in the family since her late great aunt Jessie Silverton in 1913.

When she was born 101 years ago, King George VI was on the throne, women had no vote and the Great War was still a year away.

But that was the last time the family produced a female offspring – more than a century ago.

After that, Jessie's parents, horse and cart driver Edward Silverton, and his wife Emma had five children between 1910 and 1917.

Between them (Jessie, older siblings Amy and Edward, and younger brothers Vick and John), they went on to have five children themselves - all of them male.

Amy had two sons, Ronnie and Vick, Jessie had a boy called Peter, Vick had a boy called Roy and John had a son called David, who is Jeremy's dad.

The all-male generation added seven more children of their own to the family tree - again, all of them boys - leaving Jeremy with a brother, Christopher, and five male cousins.

Jeremy, a farmer and agricultural lecturer of Tiverton, Devon, already has two sons, Oscar, four, and Harry, six.

They brought the grand total of male births to 16 before the chain was broken by Poppy on September 9.

She arrived at 8.45pm at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital weighing a healthy 8lb and 11oz.

Danielle's mother Jo had predicated a girl because of the way her care worker daughter was holding herself but Jeremy dismissed it as superstition.

But he then started to paint his blue nursery pink after doctors took an ultrasound and confirmed a daughter was on the way.

"It's always a 50/50 chance, you could flip a coin to guess but it just so happens that up until now our family has only had boys,” said Poppy’s dad, Jeremy.

"However Danielle's mother is the superstitious type and saw signs of it being a girl.

"I just thought it was an old wives tale but because Danielle wanted a girl so badly we decided to go get a scan to find out the gender.

"We couldn't believe it when we got the news from the scans. As soon as we got home the previously blue nursery was repainted pink and white, there was no time wasted.

"When I first told my mother over the phone it took about five minutes for the penny to drop that she would be having a granddaughter and not another grandson.

"Poppy is likely to be very spoilt being the only girl but Harry and Oscar, our two boys, are taking it all in their stride."

[40 Unusual Baby Names That Are Set To Make A Comeback in 2014]

[Kate Middleton Pregnant: Royal Baby Name And Odds On Boy Or Girl Revealed]