Monday 12 May 2014

Is it just coincidence?


Don't we all love birthdays. Even if you no longer celebrate yours as you used to I am sure that most of us will have someone else whose birthday we celebrate . Maybe it is your children or grandchildren with whom you enjoy sharing a day of celebration.

We also celebrate other occasions such as weddings, christenings and graduations.

For us genealogists these can be dates we spend many hours trying to confirm.

However we must not forget there are many other days which can be significant in our lives and they may not always be recorded in so much detail, but may hold great memories for us.

Have you ever looked at all these dates you have collected and thought to yourself why that particular date.
So exact dates for birth and death are not usually predictable, although nowadays even these can sometimes be planned.
All those other dates however can to some degree be planned.

Every month has 28 days a few only 30 but most 31. So you would expect something of a spread of dates for events such as marriages or christenings. People tend to get married or christened at weekends. Was this true in the past?

At some time, years back, I noticed that some days in the month seemed to be more popular than others for family events.
For some reason the 26th of the month seems to be very popular for marriages. Among the ancestors and siblings we have 9 marriages on the 26th  of the month, 1 March, 2 April, 4 June, 1 July and 1 September. Three of the four sets of grandparents for my husband and I are included in this group. It was not as though they got married on a birthday, only one ancestor was born on the 26th of the month and although he also married on the 26th it was a different month.


My husband actually shares his birthday, day and month, with his great grandmother. She died after he was born so it must have been a special birthday for her that year to have her eldest son's, eldest son have his eldest son born on her birthday. What would have made it even more special that year was the fact that his younger brother had also become a father, of a baby boy, only 3 days earlier.

Elizabeth Agnes Gadsby nee Clarke

So just look at those dates as you record them.
Could they have been chosen?
Did they hold some significance for the family?

We may never know the answers but it could all be just a coincidence since before they married they were not related, or were THEY.





7 comments:

  1. I love this Hilary! I often wonder about dates too!
    My brother shares his birthday with my Grandfather. My brother is the only Grandson too.
    My Poppa died on the 31st of August, 2003. His Grandmother died on the 31st of August in 1909, and his brother was buried on the 31st of August in 1905. I thought that was pretty trippy!
    Two of my Nanna's brothers both died on the 15th of December but 3 years apart.

    You don't really think much of this until you do genealogy :)

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  2. My hubby & I got married on the 21st June. He'd worked out that it was the nearest Saturday to halfway between our birthdays.

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  3. Love this! In my family, it's disastrous Wedding dates. My maternal grandparents were married on December 7th, 1917 (1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, in the U.S.; famously called a 'date which will live in infamy.'). My parents were married on September 11, 1954 (2001, the bombing of the World Trade Towers in NY). I was married on February 29th; there's a lot less chance of something bad happening that date. Heh.

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  4. Now I will have to look at my dates in a different way! I remember when I was young asking my mother why all four of us (my brothers and sister) had birthdays in the summer? She smiled and said "the winters were cold, dear." I didn't understand at first, but later it sunk in. :-)

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  5. I was born on my grandparent's wedding anniversary and on the day of their first born, my uncle. Love the game, dates shared. My grandmother loved reminding me of the significance of the date!

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  6. I love it when I find dates that connect. I recently noticed that my great great grandparents James and Margaret McGregor were married on my birthday, and then one of their youngest daughter's Elizabeth was married on the same same date, 50 years later. The family had a big celebration, celebrating the Elizabeth's wedding and their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

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  7. Hilary, As well as dates of the month that are popular in our family we have certain months that are popular too.

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World Wide Genealogy Team