Counting All the Members of the Duggars’ Growing Family
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have a new son-in-law. The 19 Kids and Counting couple’s daughter Jana Duggar recently married Stephen Wissmann. Learn more about their wedding.
However, he did go back on her radar—with People reporting the two dated for a short period of time, split but continued to stay in touch. And in 2022, Jana’s brother Jeremiah Duggar married Stephen’s sister Hannah Wissmann. With love in the air, Jana and Stephen decided to give their relationship another go earlier this year.
And soon, the bride—who wore an ivory, off-the-shoulder gown for her wedding—will be making another big change as she told the outlet she’s moving from Arkansas to Nebraska to live with the groom and his family.
Instagram/Jana Duggar; Instagram/Stephen WissmannJana and Stephen got engaged June 15, per the publication, and fans had a feeling she had privately accepted a proposal—especially after she was spotted with a diamond ring on thatfinger in a July Instagram photo.
It’s no surprise eagle-eyed followers noticed the bling. After all, Jana’s relationship status had been under a microscope since her younger siblings began settling down 16 years ago.
“I think sometimes it feels a little more pressure,” the 19 Kids and Counting alum admitted to Us Weekly in 2020. “I’m like, ‘I’m not that worried.’ Yes, I long to be married, and one day I think that will come. I’m also just trying to stay busy with whatever comes along my path and just making the most of these single years. When that time comes, it’ll be the next season of life. I think if I’m like, ‘Oh no! I’m not married’ and just all worried about it, it makes things way worse. And so I just find the next thing to do to stay busy.”
Jana is the eldest daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. Her siblings include Josh Duggar, John David Duggar, Jill Dillard, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph Duggar, Josiah Duggar, Joy-Anna, Jeremiah, Jed Duggar, Jason Duggar, James Duggar, Justin Duggar, Jackson Duggar, Johannah, Jennifer Duggar, Jordyn-Grace and Josie Duggar.
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The parents of 19 and grandparents of over three dozen little ones started out as high school sweethearts.
Michelle has recalled being “saved” at 15. Then, one night, Jim Bob was making home outreach visits on behalf of his Baptist church and he ended up knocking on the Ruark family’s door after his friend told him that “this girl from school that just got saved and is a cheerleader” lived there.
They invited Michelle to Sunday school at their church and, Jim Bob said, he prayed to god that they could be each other’s spiritual leaders—though apparently their first meeting wasn’t as memorable for Michelle. A year later, she applied for a job at the frozen yogurt shop owned by Jim Bob’s parents. “You came to the counter where I was standing by the cash register and introduced yourself,” Michelle remembered in a letter posted on the family blog in 2017 for Jim Bob’s birthday and their 33rd wedding anniversary. “You were shy but very sweet! I really don’t remember much about that conversation, except that you finally mustered up the courage to ask me if I would go to your junior-senior banquet with you!”
She attended the dinner with him at Shiloh Christian, but it was when they hung out afterward discussing the Bible for hours at her parents’ house that she knew.”From there, we believe our hearts were knit together,” Michelle has said. “We graduated high school in May of 1984 and were married in July. I was 17 and Jim Bob was 19.”
The couple dedicated themselves to God and each other for the long run.
Jim Bob is a former state legislator, having served in the Arkansas House of Representatives for the sixth district from 1999 until 2002, during which he was vice chair of the House of Corrections and Criminal Law Subcommittee. A run for U.S. Senate in 2002 ended in the primary, as did a bid in 2006 to become the Republican nominee for Arkansas State Senate District 35.
He and Michelle, who are both licensed realtors, have been active in conservative causes—an aspect of their lifestyle that won them and 19 Kids and Counting (which premiered in 2008 as 17 Kids and Counting) both fierce supporters and fierce critics. A robocall Michelle recorded in 2014 encouraging people to vote against a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance in Fayetteville—in which she said she was calling to “inform” them of the so-called dangers of making it legal for transgender men and women to use the facilities they feel safest and most comfortable in—inspired a Change.org petition demanding TLC cancel their show.
The city council approved the ordinance.
Eldest Duggar child Josh was born March 3, 1988. He too became a conservative activist, campaigning for the Family Research Council.
He stepped down after old police records surfaced in 2015 revealing that he had been accused of molesting several girls, including his sisters Jessa and Jill, when he was a teenager. Jessa defended her brother in a sit-down with Fox News that June, insisting that the worst names people were calling Josh were “so overboard and a lie, really. I mean people get mad at me for saying that, but I can say this because I was one of the victims.”
His wife also stuck by him, including after he admitted to being unfaithful. When he checked into a treatment center in 2016, his parents called it “a crucial first step in recovering and healing.”Parents of three—daughter Mackynzie (Oct. 8, 2009) and sons Michael (June 15, 2011) and Marcus (June 2, 2013)—when the scandal broke, Anna gave birth to their fourth child, Meredith, on July 16, 2015, the same day TLC canceled 19 Kids. Their fifth child, son Mason Garett, was born Sept. 12, 2017, daughter Maryella Hope arrived Nov. 27, 2019 and baby No. 7, Madyson Lily, was born Oct. 23, 2021.
In a federal indictment filed in April 2021, Josh was charged with a count apiece of receipt and possession of child pornography. He pleaded not guilty on both counts. In 2022, Josh was found guilty on both counts, and sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.
johnandabbie/InstagramShortly after Josh was born, Michelle got pregnant again, but suffered a miscarriage. While she and Jim Bob were still grieving that loss and praying for guidance, they found out that twins were on the way.
“We felt it was a double blessing,” she told Love to Know. “God was encouraging our hearts. We’re still learning. It’s really so unusual, because I breastfeed my babies, but my children are so close together. I have a baby and then eight months later I’m expecting. Just another unusual thing the Lord has seen fit to do with our situation.”
John-David and his sister Jana were born on Jan. 12, 1990.
After a whirlwind courtship (they did “know of each other” for several years, though, before meeting at a church event in Abbie’s home state of Oklahoma) and a short engagement, John-David and Abbie got married on Nov. 3, 2018. They welcomed daughter Grace Annette Duggaron Jan. 7, 2020 and son Charlie Duggar in September 2022.
Jana Duggar (m. Stephen Wissmann)
On their 30th birthday in January 2020, John-David’s twin confessed in a sweet message to him, “Ever since John and I were little we’ve been asked if we have that ‘twin thing’. You know, the thing where you feel what the other one is feeling or know what the other one is thinking…Well, John, I’ve always answered that with a no—but now I can honestly say that the day little Gracie was born I felt every bit of happiness that you did, so I guess it must be real!”
Jana continued, “It’s so sweet watching you & Abbie as parents! You’re naturals! And the same qualities that have made you a wonderful brother will also make you an amazing dad.”
And while Jana watched 11 of her 18 brothers and sisters get married before she found love with Stephen Wissmann—who sister Hannah Wissmann is married to the former TLC star’s brother Jeremiah—she believes it’s all part of God’s plan.
“I haven’t always understood what the bigger picture is, but I know that God knows what is best for all of us. And so for me, it’s getting married later,” Jana told People in August 2024, shortly before her wedding. “Each of our stories will be written differently. If we were all the exact same, it would be a boring life.”
InstagramJill was born on May 17, 1991. In a love story reminiscent of her parents’, Jill first met Derick (who grew up about 45 minutes away) on Christmas 2011 when he stopped by the Duggar family abode while out caroling with his church group.
Jim Bob played matchmaker, and Jill and Derick hit it off, growing closer over email and Skype. Father and daughter went to visit Derick in Nepal that November and Jill and Derick continued to fall for each other. In February 2014, Derick asked Jim Bob for his daughter’s hand in marriage, and they tied the knot on June 21, 2014. They are parents to three sons—Israel, born on April 6, 2015, Samuel, born July 8, 2017, and Frederick, born July 7, 2022.
In April 2024, Jill shared that she had suffered a pregnancy loss while expecting her and Derick’s first baby girl.
The couple starred on 19 Kids and Counting and later, Counting On. Derick was fired from the show in 2017 after making homophobic remarks about fellow TLC reality star, Jazzy Jennings.
Jill and Derick reflected on the controversies and religious beliefs surrounding her family in the Amazon Prime Video documentary Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, which premiered in June 2023.
Jim Bob and Michelle’s fifth child was born Nov. 4, 1992.
Jessa met Ben through church and he began courting her in 2013—the old-fashioned approach to romance coming as a brand-new notion to a lot of viewers. The kids never talked about their romances pre-engagement, so Jim Bob explained to People, “Courting is getting to know each other in a group setting, both families spending time together and the couple setting goals together to determine if they are meant to marry. With dating, a couple will often pair off alone and that sometimes leads to a more physical relationship.”
Ben asked for Jessa’s hand and then proposed in August 2014—sealing the deal by holding her hand for the first time. They married on Nov. 1, 2014. Jessa was pregnant with their first child when 19 Kids and Counting was canceled and TLC subsequently aired a special about sexual abuse, featuring Jill and Jessa, to further educate viewers on the subject. The sisters would end up the stars of their own show, Jill and Jessa: Counting On, that winter; the show then evolved to become Counting On, featuring other Duggar siblings as well.
Meanwhile, Jessa and Ben welcomed son Spurgeon on Nov. 5, 2015, son Henry on Feb. 6, 2017, daughter Ivy Jane on May 28, 2019 and daughter Fern in July 2021. In February 2023, Jessa shared that she suffered a miscarriage over the 2022 holiday season. She gave birth to her fifth child, George, in December 2023.
InstagramThe sixth Duggar child was born Dec. 21, 1993.
Jinger and Jeremy met doing ministry work in Laredo, Texas, and started courting in 2016. They married on Nov. 5, 2016 (the bride’s nephew Spurgeon’s birthday—but you just try not overlapping milestones when you’re one of 19), and were promptly the subject of pregnancy rumors.
“Where we see ourselves in a year is probably just settled down, still doing ministry here in Laredo, and just seeking to serve the Lord, however, we can,” Jinger said on a June 2017 episode of Counting On.
Their daughter Felicity was born July 19, 2018. In May of that year, they revealed that Jinger was pregnant again—and that she had suffered a miscarriage the previous fall. In November 2020, they welcomed daughter Evangeline Jo.