In the factual Gilbreth family, daughter Mary died from a childhood illness; the movie includes a Mary, but keeps her in the background with no lines.
On the living-room shelf is a picture of the real Frank Gilbreth in uniform as an Army Major during WWI. This is visible outside the makeshift operating room during the mass tonsillectomies.
The big house the family moves to in Montclair is the same house set originally built for Judy Garland's family in Meet Me In St. Louis (1944). Fox didn't have an appropriate standing outdoor set so they rented time on the "St. Louis Street" on MGM lot #2.
The mother is a degreed psychologist (as referred to in the movie). The gold necklace she wears is a Phi Beta Kappa Key (honors society)
In the movie, the last child born is a boy named Robert, but in real life, the last Gilbreth child was a girl named Jane. There was a son named Robert, but he was the second-to-last child born.
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