1800-1899

A look at 61 births of conjoined twins (33 sets of girls, 16 sets of boys, 12 sets of unknown gender) recorded during the 19th century. Two sets were allegedly triplets in which all three were joined and three sets were of triplets with two conjoined. Cases are shown in chronological order.

In 1806, xiphopagus twin girls are separated by their father, a surgeon, who ties a ligature around the band that connects them. One sister dies after surgery while the other survives for five years.

An Irishwoman, Mrs. Cahill, gives birth to conjoined twins on January 3, 1808.

Perhaps the best-known set of conjoined twins and the ones who were first given the name "Siamese Twins" were Chang and Eng, who were born on a houseboat in the village of Mekong in what was then known as Siam on May 11, 1811. Born to a farming family, they were the fifth and sixth children of their mother Nok and their father, Ti-eye. The couple would later have three additional children. Connected by a five-inch band of cartilage between their breastbones (which would expand slightly as they aged), Chang and Eng were xiphopagus twins, completely symmetrical and most probably could have been separated during their lives.

Chang and Eng led celebrated lives, they spent much of their childhood living with King Rama III in Bangkok before traveling to America in 1829. Arriving in the United States, they added a surname, Bunker, most probably because of their friendship with a family with that name. The two toured extensively throughtout the world for most of their lives before settling down to live as farmers in Wilkesboro, North Carolina in 1839. It was in the North Carolina hills that Chang and Eng met their wives, marrying sisters Adelaide and Sallie Yates, respectively.

The two families led relatively prosperous lives and fathered 21 or 22 children between them (only about ten survived to adulthood). They died within hours of each other on January 17, 1874 at age 62. For more on their rich lives, we suggest reading The Two, Chang and Eng: A Novel or visiting The Hypenated Life Web Site. One of the Bunker Twins descendents, Michael Bunker, maintains an informative web site on his family here at twinstuff.

One of the first sets of conjoined twins recorded in the United States, a pair of dicephalus tetrabrachius tripus twin girls, is born in North Carolina in October of 1813.

Ischiopagus tripus twin girls are born to a Spanish mother, Mrs. Fernandez, on May 30, 1818, and survive just five days.

Pygopagus twins Mary Jane and Martha Ann are born in Kentucky on September 22, 1819.

In County Roscommon, Ireland, ischiopagus tetrapus twins Mary and Catherine Corcoran, are born on July 24, 1824. Mary is dark-haired while Catherine is blonde. The girls eat, sleep and spit up separately.

Dicephalus tribrachius tripus twin girls are born in Italy on March 1, 1826 and both die at birth.

Rita and Christine

A sad fate awaited the Sardinian Twins, Ritta and Christina Parodi (shown to the left), who were born in Sassari, Sardinia in 1829. The eighth and ninth children of poor parents, the twins died of cold at just 8 months and 11 days (Nov. 23, 1829) when their parents took them to Paris to be exhibited. Their skeleton is still preserved in Paris. They were dicephalus twins with 2 legs, 2 upper bodies, 4 arms and 2 heads.

A rare report of conjoined triplets comes from Italy in 1831. The male triplets are "tricephalus", having a single torso with three heads, three arms and two legs. Of the 6 or 7 reported cases of conjoined triplets in medical history, only one, described by Greek doctors in The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2005, has been verified.

Thoracopagus twin girls are born to 32-year-old Catharine Ruff of France on June 26, 1832. "One of them has no head, the vertebral column stopping suddenly at the level of the shoulders," reports a Dr. Scomellen, quoted in the Gettysburg Republican Banner of October 29, 1833.

Pygopagus twin girls are born to the Sullivan family of Kentucky on September 19, 1835, but survive for just three weeks.

Ischiopagus twin girls, baptized Marie-Louise and Hortense-Honorine, are born in France on October 7, 1838. Their parents take them to Paris on exhibition, where they die of exposure on November 8.

Rare diprosopus twin girls - having one body, neck and head but two faces - are stillborn in Ireland on March 3, 1839.

On February 20, 1840, dicephalus dibrachius dipus twin boys are born in England. The same year, on May 22, a pair of boys who are similarly joined but with three arms are also born in England.

One of the first sets of Canadian conjoined twins, ischiopagus twin brothers, is born in Ontario in the 1840s. The babies are both stillborn.

Ischiopagus dipus twin boys are born to indigenous parents in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) in 1841 and brought to the city of Columbo on exhibition, where they survive for two months.

Stillborn dicephalus dibrachius dipus conjoined twin boys are born to "Mrs. L." of Pennsylvania on August 21, 1844.

Dicephalus dibrachius dipus twin boys are born in Massachusetts in June of 1846.

In 1851, cephalopagus twin girls are stillborn in Pennsylvania. The sisters' conjoined skeletons are on display in Philadelphia's Mütter Museum.

While Chang and Eng were garnering most of the headlines during this era, another remarkable pair of conjoined twins, Millie and Christine McKoy, the Two-Headed Nightingale, were also living in North Carolina. These two twins were born into slavery in Columbus County, North Carolina on July 11, 1851, weighing a remarkable combined 17 pounds at birth (Christine, the stronger baby, likely weighed a dozen of those 17 pounds). The twins were fluent in five languages and were accomplished pianists, singers and dancers who toured the world performing, with many of those years as featured performers of PT Barnum's traveling shows. They died on October 8 and 9, 1912 as Millie succombed to tuburculosis and Christine was then given massive doses of morphine before also passing on from eight to 17 hours later. For more on Millie-Christine, we recommend reading the book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.

Craniopagus twin girls are born in Russia in 1855.

Dicephalus tetrabrachius tripus twin girls are born in Ohio on January 16, 1855, but survive only until February 20.

In 1856, pygopagus twin girls, supposedly named Helen and Judith after the famous Hungarian sisters, are born in Texas. According to Gould and Pyle in Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, the sisters were "of different natures and dispositions, and inclined to quarrel very often" and "lived and attained some age".

Stillborn dicephalus dibrachius dipus conjoined twin girls are born to "Mrs. L." of New York on August 11, 1857.

Conjoined twins are born in Nova Scotia to the Fleet family on March 20, 1858, and die soon after birth.

On June 28, 1862, "Mrs. McC." of Ohio gives birth to a rare type of twins known as diprosopus, who have a single body and a single head but separate brains and faces. The female twins both die at birth.

Another set of diprosopus twin girls are born to the Stern family of Maryland on January 23, 1864. The girls both die at birth.

Another set of twins, Mina and Minnie Finley, were born in Mt. Gilead, Ohio on October 12, 1870. The twin girls lived to be just 13 months before passing away. Ischiopagus twins, the sisters had three legs, two heads, and four arms. A plaster cast of their joined bodies resides in the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania today.

Stillborn omphalopagus twin girls are born to the Rockey family of Illinois on February 17, 1871.

A newspaper report from 1872 reads, "A Berlin physician recently tried to dissever the bodies of two twin girls grown together like the Siamese Twins. One of the girls survived the operation one day and the other lingered for three days." (Gettysburg Compiler, July 26, 1872)

Pygopagus twins named Jeanne and Marguerite are born in 1874 and both die at birth.

Stillborn xiphopagus twins are born to the Rodenbaugh family of Illinois in 1874.

In July of 1875, xiphopagus twins are born to the Ashley family of Georgia. Both die at birth.

Giovanni and Giancomo Tocci - 1880s

Another well-known set who lived during this era were Giavanni and Giacomo Tocci, the inspiration for Mark Twain's Those Extraordinary Twins. The Tocci Twins were born in Locana, Italy on October 4, 1877. They were one body below their sixth rib and two bodies above with each brother controlling one of their legs (dicephalus twins). They were quite artistic, spoke three languages, perhaps married sisters (it is unclear), and lived their final 40 years in relative seclusion near Venice, Italy. Their actual death date is unfortunately unknown.

According to the book, The Two-Headed Boy & Other Medical Marvels by Jan Bondeson (Cornell University Press, 2000), the Tocci Twins were born to a 19-year-old mother and 32-year-old father, who fainted when first presented his newborn sons. After their parents exploited the pair during extensive tours, both the family and twins made a great deal of money, allowing the twins to retire at an early age (at age 20).

A rare example of parasitic conjoined twins was the sideshow performer, Jean Libbera, who was born in Rome, Italy in 1884, with a conjoined twin, Jacques, growing from his torso. He was the fourth of 13 children in his family and the third child in the family also had the same type of parasitic twin, but died shortly after birth.

The "St. Benoit Twins", Rose and Marie Drouin, are born in St. Benoit, Quebec, in 1878. They are dicephalus tetrabrachius twins, divided about halfway down the torso. They are briefly exhibited by the Barnum circus but die of exposure and illness in August of 1879.

Another alleged set of conjoined triplets, girls with three heads, six arms and one body, are born in Spain in 1879. In medical literature, they are referred to as "the case of Martin de Pedro".

Conjoined twins, both of whom die at birth, are born to the Pierce family of Georgia on June 11, 1880.

Xiphopagus twin sisters Marie and Adèle are born in Switzerland on June 26, 1881. Doctors Biaudet and Buginon attempt to separate the sisters, who are already ill and feeble, on October 29, but Adèle dies six hours after the operation and Marie succumbs to peritonitis the following day.

Xiphopagus twin boys are born to the Smith family of Pennsylvania on July 31, 1882, but both die at birth.

Omphalopagus twin girls are born to the Williams family of Arkansas on September 21, 1886. One girl dies at birth, while the other dies the following day.

Liou Seng-Sen and Liou Tang-Sen are born in Nanking, China, around 1887. The brothers are joined only by a narrow band of flesh at the chest, similar to Chang and Eng (photographs of these twins are often mistaken for Chang and Eng). The Liou twins join showbusiness at an early age and come to the United States around 1900 with the Barnum circus. Because immigration laws in the United States forbid Chinese immigrants from entering the country, Seng-Sen and Tang-Sen are called "The Korean Twins". Around 1905, they retire to China. In 1957, surgeons at China Union Medical College in Peiping (modern Beijing) report separating 71-year-old male conjoined twins - most certainly the Liou brothers - because one is ill with bronchitis. The sick brother dies, but the healthy one remarkably survives. A more extensive biography of the Liou twins, with several photographs, can be found here.

Ischiopagus tetrapus twins are born to the Mann family of Alabama in January of 1887.

Triplets, two of whom are pygopagus twin girls, are born to a "Mrs. G" in Kent, England, on September 21, 1887. The conjoined sisters survive for only three days.

Conjoined twin boys, Harold and Edmund Freeman, are born in England on November 8, 1887, and both die at birth.

Xiphopagus twin boys, along with a non-conjoined triplet sister, are born to the Cochran family of Texas on January 4, 1888.

Conjoined twins are born to the Watkins family of Texas on January 21, 1888.

Another early pair of twins who were separated briefly were the Orissa Sisters, Radica and Doadica, who were born in India in either 1888 or 1889. They were separated by a French physician after one of the sisters contracted tuberculosis with Doadica dying immediately following the separation and Radica dying two years later also to tuberculosis.

The conjoined twin sons of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Jones of Tipton, Indiana, who are never given first names, are born on June 24, 1889. The ischiopagus tetrapus twin boys are exhibited as curiosities for two years until their untimely death from illness and exposure on February 19 and 20, 1891, in a Buffalo, New York, hotel room.

Dicephalus dibrachius twins of unknown gender are born to the Fitzgerald family of Washington, D.C., in November of 1889.

Xiphopagus twin sisters Maria and Rosalina are born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1891 and exhibited as curiosities for about eight years. In 1899, an exploratory operation reveals that the sisters share a liver and cannot be surgically separated using the technology of the day. However, in 1900, a Parisian surgeon decides that he can separate them successfully. One sister dies during the operation, while the survivor remains sickly and dies five years later.

Stillborn cephalopagus twins are born to the Decker family of Illinois in June of 1894.

Mrs. James Winger of Detroit delivers stillborn conjoined daughters on November 13, 1894. The girls are "connected like the Siamese twins, with the further peculiarity that they have only one abdomen between them" (Portsmouth Daily Times, Nov. 14, 1894). Mrs. Winger donates the girls' remains to the state university medical center for further study.

Mrs. Stephen Banks of Knoxville, Tennessee gives birth to stillborn daughters "joined together from the armpits to the hips on the side by a ligament" on January 8, 1895. (Davenport Daily Leader, January 9, 1895.)

Pygopagus twin girls are born to a German immigrant couple, Mr. and Mrs. J. Koehler of New York, on April 15, 1895. Both sisters die on May 27.

"A child having two heads, four arms and two distinct physical organizations growing together on the shoulder and facing in opposite directions" is born to Mr. and Mrs. B. McPherson of Lorain, Ohio on April 14, 1896 (Steubenville Daily Herald, April 14, 1896). Based on this description, the twins are probably thoracopagus.

Conjoined twin girls, along with a non-conjoined triplet brother, are born to the Yang family of China on July 13, 1896. All three babies die at birth.

Omphalopagus twins are born to the McGovern family of Oregon in December of 1896 and undergo separation immediately after birth.

A Missouri woman, Mrs. Simon, dies giving birth to conjoined twins on August 28, 1898.

Xiphopagus twin boys are born in July of 1899 to Mrs. James Huffman of Memphis, Indiana. Both twins die simultaneously on July 14.

[Back to Chronological Timeline of Conjoined Twins Timeline]