After generations of boy-only births, a West Michigan baby girl ends the streak

Here’s one for Audrey Marie Clark’s baby book, and it's more than a roundup of news headlines on the day she was born: In this case, her birth is the headline.

In fact, baby Clark's birth has been a recent headline in a few publications globally — New York, London, and even Mumbai, India, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — since she came into the world on St. Patrick’s Day, and it has made the Grand Rapids, Detroit, and national TV news, too.

Why? Because Audrey is the first girl born to the Clark family in more than 130 years, breaking a streak — which appears to be a statistical anomaly — going back to 1885, according to her west Michigan family, which apparently has been keeping track.

"We had no idea the news was going to blow up the way it has," Carolyn Clark, Audrey's 36-year-old mom, told the Free Press early Monday. "We just did a segment with our local news station here, and then this past week has been a whirlwind with all the press and people contacting us for interviews."

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She added that they've heard from friends and family from all over the country who've seen the news and are trying to keep track of all the articles and TV and radio broadcasts — which, she said, now "seems insane" and "crazy" to them — for posterity, so Audrey, when she's older, can see that the "first three weeks of her life were newsworthy."

Global birth announcement

Clark, of Caledonia, a small village near Grand Rapids, said the media blitz started out as a "feel-good story" with the local TV station, but it snowballed into a segment on ABC, "Good Morning America" and then into reports on radio shows, websites, and newspapers worldwide.

The family's story has been reported in People, which has one of the biggest magazine audiences in America; in tabloids like the New York Post and the British Daily Mirror; and even in an English-language broadsheet in India, the Indian Express, and a Malaysian website, Newswav.

Clark said she met her husband, Andrew, at a family resort in Muskegon years ago, and when they started dating, he let her know that his family had not had a girl in his direct line in more than 100 years. At first, she didn't quite believe him. But, she said, relatives confirmed that bit of family history.

Of course, their first child was a boy, Cameron, who is now 4.

So when little Audrey was recently born, weighing in at 6 pounds, 8 ounces, it was an especially happy surprise.

Audrey's middle name, Marie, is also Carolyn Clark's middle name — and the middle name of both of Audrey's grandmothers. Her first name came from a list of about 40 her mom had compiled. Her parents liked it, her mom said, because it felt both traditional and modern at the same time.

Carolyn Clark added: Audrey also means "strength," which a girl in a family of nothing but boys will need.

So, what are the odds?

The Clarks aren't the first west Michigan family to make headlines with the birth of a girl.

In 2000, Maggie Jayne Schwandt briefly became famous for breaking a similar streak. Kateri and Jay Schwandt had 14 boys before — finally — giving birth to a girl. The Free Press headline: "A boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy and now a girl!"

One of Maggie Jayne's brothers said the family was "blessed with the little girl" they never thought they'd have.

Statistically, according to the World Health Organization, in most countries, the gender birth ratio tends to slightly favor boys: about 105 males per 100 female births, although — in theory — the sex ratio at conception is equal. It turns out female mortality is slightly higher.

But the odds are slim that there would be no female births over several generations.

"When we decided to start growing our family, I just was like, 'I'm going to try for it,' " Carolyn Clark told Grand Rapids station WZZM-TV, noting that the male-only streak went all the way back to her husband's great, great grandfather. But, she said: "I want the girl."

And now, Clark said, she has one — along with a closet full of pink baby clothes.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: After 130-plus years, West Michigan family tree finally has a daughter