New baby brings Newark and Scarborough family to five generations of girls spanning 93 years

A family is celebrating five generations of girls after the early arrival of a great-great-granddaughter.

Two-week-old Romi Elizabeth Carlton is the newest addition to the Newark and Scarborough-based family, and with mum Alisha Carlton, grandma Leanne Berry, great-grandma Lorraine Pailing and 93-year-old great-great- grandma Elsie Marshall, becomes a fifth generation of girls.

Lorraine said: “It was a shock, Alisha was supposed to be due on the 24th February, but at a check-up they found the baby was breach. They tried to turn her and it started her labour.”

Thankfully, both mum and baby were healthy after a caesarean birth, and Elsie Marshall became a great-great-grandma for a second time ­— but to the first girl of the generation.

The first great-great-grandchild was baby Marshall, nine months prior to Romi, and the son of Alisha's sister Niomi Ainsworth.

“It’s wonderful, because when we had Alisha my grandma had just died so it’s lovely to have made it to five generations this time,” Lorraine said.

“[Elsie] was more shocked than anything, but babies are really mum’s thing.

“She was really really happy.”

Despite the distance between them, with Romi, Alisha and Leanne living in Scarborough and Lorraine and Elsie living in Newark, the family are very close knit ­— even bringing all five generations together when Romi was just ten days old. They will also be celebrating the new baby with the wider family­— including members who live and work abroad ­— with a get together in Newark for the first time since covid-19.

Lorraine said: “We are really really close. With the age of technology we call all the time.

“We value family above anything else, which is something that has been passed down from my mum and grandma.

“Love is the most important thing.”