As the number of names and dates in our family research grows, it is inevitable that some dates will coincide, that some significant events in our family's history will fall close to, or right on, our birthdays. In my own family, both my parents and sister were born at the start of the year, in the Australian summer. I'm off in August, in the depths of our winter. Several cousins, however, have birthdays quite close to mine. As both parents come from fairly large families I have over 30 cousins, so it is inevitable some dates are fairly close.
As I have delved into the family history finding coinciding dates has always interested me - although on one occasion it did lead me astray and gave me a valuable lesson in making assumptions and how easy it is to get it wrong.
A few years ago I discovered a family with three children all baptised on the same day, and jumped rather enthusiastically to the conclusion 'Triplets!!" I'm sure many can immediately see my mistake here. Closer examination showed that while it was in fact three siblings all baptised on the same day, one was three months old, the second was two years old and the third almost 5 years old. I will never again make the mistake that a christening or baptism closely equates with birth! Looking back I now know that several ancestors were baptised as children several years old rather than as babies - it was more common than I had realised.
Going back over the generations, several ancestors have birthdays on the
same day as mine. Others married, or died, on the same day as I was
born, but sharing a birthday with a several times great grandparent is
always going to be special. Sharing a birthday or other significant date with our ancestors cam help
us to connect with them - to feel a greater sense of being family and a
more 'personal' connection to that particular individual.
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