Coincidences

[ninatoo]

Hi all,

I'm just filling in my tree with some research I did a while ago, and came across a couple married on my own marriage date. Well, that happens, I suppose, lol! But then I noticed they had married in the very church I was baptised in, which is not a big place (Milton Parish Church) and I haven't come across it very much in my research. Well what a nice set of coincidences I thought to myself.

Then I found the birth registration of their daughter (who married into my line).....same birthday as me (give or take 60 years!) So then I was

Just thought I would share....I am sure others have found similar things in their research!

Nina

[Ina]

Hi Nina,

I also found a coincidence while doing my research. My daughter got married Nov.18th, 1988, long time before I started tracing my family tree. I was surprised to discover that my parents were also married on Nov.18th 1938, then very very surprised to discover that my grandparents were also married on Nov.18, 1917.

Ina

[trish1]

My grandmother, one of her grandchildren and a great grandchild all have the same birthday (some years apart ). It is the favorite day of the year in our family

Trish

[joette]

My Grandparents(maternal) were married on the same date & time as my Great-Aunt & Uncle(paternal) just in different Churches.They are Registered on the same page my grandparents entry first.
Then my maternal Great-aunt & Uncle marry on the same date/year/place as my Great-aunt & Uncle(paternal).Again their entries are on the same page.

[Ann In the UK]

So many coincidences in our research, it's started to become a bit of a family joke!

Aside from finding many elusive people after months of searching, only to discover that the date we find them on turns out to be on or very near a date relavent to them (usually their birth or death date or something) here are a few others that have astounded us over the years - hope you can follow!

My 3x great grandmother's niece (whom she was very closed to - they lived on the same street a few doos apart, and the neice owned the deeds to 3x ggm's grave when she died) was married to a hairdresser. In 1911, his brother, (with whom they were also very close - he was godfather to several of their children and vice versa) lived next door to my husband's 2x great granddad on his dad’s side. (One is below the other in the census!). His ggf was the landlord of the local pub – doesn’t take much of a stretch to assume they (and probably the rest of my lot who lived in the vicinity) all knew him, at least from the odd BM or D!

In 1911, my husband's great granddad (son of his aforementioned gggf above), lived next door to my greatgrandmother's closest sister. At the very least, they’d have known each other to look at – and as the two sisters were very close throughout their lives, my ggm would probably know him by sight too.

In 1851, my nan's 2x great grandparents lived next door to my granddad's great grandparents.

In 1873, my 3x great grandmother's middle daughter on my mum's side, as well as her husband and at least one of their children died (in a cholera outbreak I think, or something along those lines) in a house where, in 1911, my great grandparent’s on my dad’s side, lived with my young grandad.

Before she died in the mid 1960s, my great grandmother on my nan's side said that, when she was a kid in the late 1880's and early 1890's, she'd delivererd handmade shirts to a local factory for my prematurely widowed 3x great grandmother on my granddad's side. The younger woman often said of the older one 'she was a lovely woman'.

On my husband's side of the family, in the 1880s his 2x great grandparents on his mother's side lived over their grocers shop in a local village literally around the corner from where his 3x great grand mother (widow of the 3x publican great grandfather on his dad's side, mentioned above) lived. Given the size of the village at the time, and the proximity to her house, it's undoubtedly where she bought her groceries. And unbeknownst to us at the time, this is also the next corner up from where we had our own wedding reception over 100 years later – and all the lines mentioned here finally joined together!

Ann

[ninatoo]

Ann said "...turns out to be on or very near a date relavent to them (usually their birth or death date or something)"

The very first time I noticed a coincidence was when I was trying to find one of those really elusive ancestors. I could not a record for her except for the censuses and I was starting to believe she fell from the sky or something. And then one day I tried a different approach (can't remember exactly what I did now) and bang...there was her death registration. I had found it on the anniversary of the date of her death. It was surreal!!!

But now I realise that when we are dealing with dates constantly, from time to time these things happen and someone more mathematical than I could probably explain why .

Still it is GREAT fun when something crops up!

[AndrewP]

But now I realise that when we are dealing with dates constantly, from time to time these things happen and someone more mathematical than I could probably explain why .

I remember a former work colleague proving statistically that if you have a crowd of 20 or more people, the probability of two people sharing the same birth date is greater than 50%. If I remember rightly, it was:

Assuming a 365 day year, if you have two people, there is a 1 in 365 chance that the second person shares the same birth date as the first. Then a third person joins that two, there is a 1 in 365 chance that he shares the birthday of the first person, and a 1 in 365 chance that he shares the birthday of the second person. Then a fourth person joins the crowd, there is a 1 in 365 chance that he shares the birthday of person 1, 1 in 365 chance that he shares the birthday of person 2, and 1 in 365 chance that he shares a birthday with person 3.

So the probability in a crowd of 'n' people that two people share the same birth date is 1/365 + 2/365 + 3/365 ... to (n-1)/365. On adding up 1/365 + 2/365 + 3/365 + 4/365 etc, when you get to + 19/365 you pass 0.5 (50%). Therefore 19/365 being for a crowd of 20 (n-1=19; n=20), when you have 20 or more people, there is a greater than 50% chance that two will share a birthday.

So if you apply that theory to your family tree, if you have 20 or more people (could be close relatives) then there is a greater than 50% chance that two of them share a birthday. The probability increases if you include dates of marriage and dates of death.

All that arithmetic should be enough to send you to sleep.

The household of a good friend of mine has 5 people in it. The two parents, and three children. There are only three separate birthdays between them. The parents, by coincidence share the same birthday (of the same year). Then there is the older daughter, followed by the son and younger daughter who are twins.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings Andrew.

Your explanation reminds me of one of my early animal husbandry classes re animal genetics.

If one wants to breed out a dominant gene [say horned v polled] the generations go thus:-.
1 = 50%
2 = 25%
3 = 12.5%
4 = 6.25%
5 = 3.12%
6 = 1.56%
7 = 0.78%
8 = 0.39%
9 = 0.19%.
10= 0.09%

Therefore we were told that in simple terms, given eight generations, you basically had a new beast that was acceptable for the pedigree polled herd book. It’s all in the genes and down to breeding.

Alan SHARP.

[paddyscar]

Alan Sharp wrote:

It’s all in the genes and down to breeding.

As are so many things, Alan

Frances