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Without anyone mentioning and never planning it, we were married in April, my parents in April and my grandparents in April. Also, no one ever mentioned that my first name was also the name of my great-great grandmother. I was shocked to see that recently when given a copy of a chart my 2nd cousin has been working on for some time now and can't help but wonder if that played in the choice of my first name. Now, Grandma might have suggested it to my dad but since mom had little use for Grandma, that might be why it was never said that it was a relative's name. Everyone of them has passed on now so I will never know.
I found one of my ancestors living two houses from my brother-in-law's ancestor back in 1850 Illinois. She was there with her young children, as her husband was gone to the California Gold fields. Surely, a neighboring family would have been well acquainted with her, and probably helped the family out. Only to have two of their descendants marry more than a century later.
Another one is a little more off-kilter. I got into collecting postcards through genealogy. I was surprised to find a postcard I had bought was sent by, and to, the ancestor of a relative!
That would be cool! Some antique dealers have old photographs, sometimes with names written on the back. It would be great to find an old photo of a relative.
My GG grandparents (paternal) had two sons die in infancy...each shared the same name. So, they named the first son, he died; years later (and children born in between), they have another son, gave him the same name, and he died also!
I also learned that my GG grandfather's (paternal) birth date is two days after mine; and my grandmother (paternal) and I share the exact same birthday.
When I posted, I'd forgotten about all the repeated birthdays I found!
Of course, there's a 1 in 365.25 chance that two people will share a birthday. But when you see the same birthday coming up multiple times, in multiple lines, I can't imagine the odds-against-chance of that.
I need to go back and keep a list/spreadsheet of all the repeated birthdays, death days, and wedding days.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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I can't tell you how many of my ancestors lived in New Caledonia, Lancaster County PA. LC in general... probably 1/3 of my ancestors from all over (Scotland, Ulster, German, Wales) moved there before moving down to VA and the Carolinas
My GG grandparents (paternal) had two sons die in infancy...each shared the same name. So, they named the first son, he died; years later (and children born in between), they have another son, gave him the same name, and he died also!
I also learned that my GG grandfather's (paternal) birth date is two days after mine; and my grandmother (paternal) and I share the exact same birthday.
I have a similar situation. I didn't know it at the beginning but my great grandpa had two families because his first wife died. In documenting his children I kept running into "John F." and "John E." with a few years difference in birth dates. I didn't give it much thought because such a discrepancy wasn't that unusual that far back. Working with cousins we finally found they both were correct. John F. was from his first family and died young and John E. was from his second family and also died young. It took years to sort that out.
My great grandmother, mothers maternal grandmother, was born in 1854. I was born in 1952. My maternal grandmother and grandfather were both born in 1891. My son was born in 1991. My mom was born in 1916. My son (only child) got engaged and chances are the pattern will repeat pretty close. I can't find dates back from that yet, my g grandmother's family's name is famous but that also means there are a lot of them and her father doesn't show up on searches with any of the various spellings, but I wonder if this pattern follows back a few generations.
Then my son, and his fiancee. When I was with my husband we lived on a street which actually only totalled one block in the IE, socal. Seems his girl lived three houses away and they moved about when we did. But he ended up with his aunt after his dad and I split since I couldn't afford to take proper care of him, and her family moved to the same street, two houses away, from where his aunt and uncle had lived before they moved to the new house they still live in. Too many coincendences, like they were bound to meet eventually. Its also a one block street. One would be suspicious, but two is mind blowing.
My g-g-grandparents were Clara D and Leonard W. They married in 1871.
I found each of their parents' marriage records separately: Clara's parents married March 16, 1841 and Leonard's parents married June 16, 1841. I've had those records for a while.
But when I just looked closer at the actual photo images from the records hand-written by the Justice of the Peace, the marriages of both sets of parents are on the same page!
So these two couples married 3 months apart in 1841, they get recorded on the same page, and 30 years later, their children marry each other!
My g-g-grandparents were Clara D and Leonard W. They married in 1871.
I found each of their parents' marriage records separately: Clara's parents married March 16, 1841 and Leonard's parents married June 16, 1841. I've had those records for a while.
But when I just looked closer at the actual photo images from the records hand-written by the Justice of the Peace, the marriages of both sets of parents are on the same page!
So these two couples married 3 months apart in 1841, they get recorded on the same page, and 30 years later, their children marry each other!
Were they married by the same person? Perhaps they were friends or neighbors or attended the same church. Are they perhaps even recorded near each other in census records?
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Some antique dealers have old photographs, sometimes with names written on the back. It would be great to find an old photo of a relative.
