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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Gaille on Thursday 15 March 12 01:07 GMT (UK)

Title: "recycled" dates
Post by: Gaille on Thursday 15 March 12 01:07 GMT (UK)
Does anyone else see a pattern of dates being reused within their family?

Theres certain dates in my family that seem to be used over and over again.

My own birthday its one of them, its also my gt gt grandma's anniversary and the anniversary of gt aunts death (and weirdly her name - Annie - is my nickname even tho its nothing like my own name)

My grandma and shares a birthday with my sister in laws mum

My nephew was born on the anniversary of my sisters god mothers death, and My god daughter was born the day my god mother died.

My anniversary with my ex partner was the same date as my brother and sister in laws wedding.

2 of my gtgt grandparents share a death date several years apart.

obviously these are all coincidences but it just struck me how often the same date reoccured

Gaille





Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: Rishile on Thursday 15 March 12 07:29 GMT (UK)
Yes - constantly.  My birthday appears all the time and my wedding anniversary date too.  My mother married on the same date (but different year, obviously) as her mother and father married but I don't know if that was intentional.

I find it amazing every time I find a new one.

Rishile
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: Deb D on Thursday 15 March 12 07:33 GMT (UK)
Not quite within the context, ... but I think I've mentioned before that there was one date, every year, on which one or another of my brothers (and my Dad, on one occasion!) would end up in the Casualty ward of the local hospital!  "Tool Time" scripted it as a joke, ... but it actually happened that the staff at the hospital used to wait for us to arrive, on that date!
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: Pinetree on Thursday 15 March 12 08:39 GMT (UK)
I have a friend whose family's birthdays all seem to fall on special occasions such as Christmas day, Valentine's day, bonfire night.  Maybe the expectant mothers over exerted themselves celebrating bringing on the new arrivals  :D
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: behindthefrogs on Thursday 15 March 12 09:57 GMT (UK)
There is nothing unusual or family related about people having the same birthday.  Simple statistics show that if you have 23 people in a room the probability is that two of them will have the same birthday.

You are presumably looking at a much larger number of relatives than 23 and a number of different events.  What you are seeing thus has nothing to do with family traits it is just a statistically expected result.
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: HeatherLynne on Thursday 15 March 12 12:25 GMT (UK)
I have a database with 119 people's birthdays in it (not family history but work related).  Of these 28 share their birthday with someone else, mostly with just one other person but there are two dates on which three people celebrate!

If I look at my family tree there's hardly any instance of duplication of dates - and that's with over 300 people, seems that's more unlikely than having dates shared  :-\   ::)  brain's hurting now, time for lunch!

Heather

Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: Guyana on Thursday 15 March 12 14:33 GMT (UK)
I recall a stosy where all the children in a family arrived on the same date, with the same weight.

The father's occupation? Precision Grinder.
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: hugatree on Thursday 15 March 12 14:41 GMT (UK)
Mum was born on her parent's wedding anniversary, she never knew until I got their marriage certificate last year and she's 87 now!
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: LizzieW on Thursday 15 March 12 14:48 GMT (UK)
I've not found anyone of my descendants with my birthday.  My gran had her first daughter on her birthday.

In a different way, my daughter has "recycled" dates, in that her first child a son was born on St David's Day, no she didn't call him David, and her second child a daughter was born on St Patrick's Day 2 years later. 

Lizzie
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: Billyblue on Thursday 15 March 12 15:00 GMT (UK)
9 August is a recurring date in our family, over about 160 years- births, marriages, deaths.

Dawn M
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: mshrmh on Thursday 15 March 12 16:15 GMT (UK)
I remember when doing probability at school that it worked out that it was more likely than not that there would be two people with the same birthday in our group of c30 - in fact there were two pairs (twins were not involved) - I can't remember the maths now but I do remember the lesson, being one half of one pair!

If the same logic applies you don't need a huge tree to get the same date (as in day & month) recurring- I'm sure there must be a RootsChatter who can remember probabilities & explain it  ;D
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: behindthefrogs on Thursday 15 March 12 16:59 GMT (UK)
If you really wantto see the maths it can be found at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem#Calculating_the_probability
Title: Re: "recycled" dates
Post by: Deb D on Friday 16 March 12 06:12 GMT (UK)
Years after my friend's mother gave birth to all three of her children in the same month of the year ... her doctors discovered that she only ovulated once a year  ::)