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Bill Clarke/Tribune Hilda DeGroot and Jane Duivenvoorden are among 14 siblings drawing government pensions

SHANNONVALE - There are countless people who would love to get their names in the Guinness Book of World Records; few make it.

There are, however, two women in Restigouche County who found their way into those records, one from Shannonvale (near Eel River Crossing) and another from Belledune.

The citation says that they and a dozen siblings are the largest number of people from the same family who were all claiming government pensions in 2005. The other 12 are in Holland. All were born between 1922 and 1940, the children of Nicolaas van Shie and Geertruida Petronella van Shie.

Hilda DeGroot came to Shannonvale by way of California in 1957. Jane Duivenvoorden moved to what was then Armstrong Brook in 1952. (Duivenvoorden says that she's had three addresses since coming to Canada, even though she hasn't moved. Those addresses are Armstrong Brook, Jacquet River and now Belledune.)

But their claim to fame has been relatively short lived. A family from the Edmundston area has now exceeded their 14 pensioners.