KEEPING track of birthdays is no mean feat for Freda Andrews.

Not only does the 82-year-old, from Summertown, have five children, she also has 23 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and, after the birth of two new babies, three great-great-grandchildren.

And it is the second time in her life that Ms Andrews, known to the younger generations as nanny or ‘great-nanny’ has been part of five living generations of the same family, as her great-granddaughter Jess McGovern, who lives in Blackbird Leys, was born in 1991 – four years before Ms Andrews’s own mother, Lillian Elsie Andrews, died aged 87.

Ms Andrews, who divorced her husband in the 1970s, said: “It is difficult keeping track.

“I don’t buy presents for them all, I can’t afford it, but I buy them all a card for their birthdays.”

Four of her children still live in Oxfordshire, with many other members of the family, including grand-daughter Julie McGovern, 42, her three children Jess, 20, Adam, 19, and Rhea, 13, and the newest arrivals, Alice Emily McGovern, 11 weeks and Daisy Cecilia Jordan-McGovern, seven weeks, living in the city.

Ms Andrews said: “It’s still nice to see the new babies.

“But it’s nice to see them go home too.”

Her daughter, Kathleen Evans, 60, lives in the flat in Blackbird Leys Road below her granddaughter Jess and great-granddaughter Alice Emily. And she was there in the room when both Jess and Alice were born.

She said: “When Jess gave birth we all burst into tears when we realised it was a little girl because that made it five generations of women.

“Family is very important to me, and we do a lot of things together, we go out a lot together, go clothes shopping and we can all interchange if we want to borrow a top.”

Jess McGovern said having so much female experience in the family was mostly a help – and that she couldn’t have got through labour without the support of her mother, Julie, and grandma, Kathleen.

She said: “It’s helpful if I need help or advice but sometimes it is a bit ‘I can do it myself, I’m not silly’.

“I don’t have as much responsibility to remember all the birthdays, I just ask mum.”

Her mum, Julie, said: “It is weird that we have five generations again, you would never think it could happen twice in our lifetimes.

“But I love it, we’re all so close we can talk about anything and everything.”

It’s not the only unusual thing about this family.

This year as Ms Andrews turns 83, her eldest son, Michael, will be 63, her eldest granddaughter Joanne Speke, 43, one of her-great-grandsons, Michael, 23, and her youngest granddaughter Holly Speke will be three.