Lots of patterns exist in the birthdays in our families. Certain months have lots of birthdays. Situations where birthdays fall multiple days in a row exist. And, many births, deaths, and marriages of distant relatives fall on the same month/day combination of those in my immediate family. However, one of the most interesting are the parallels between my family and my dad’s cousin’s family.
Birthdays Abound
Dad was one of 11 kids. He and his siblings had 26 cousins in the McCracken family. If the birthdays for the entire group were evenly distributed over the year, that would be about 3 per month. Thus, it wouldn’t be unusual for two people to celebrate their birthday close together. Matter of fact, 4 of his siblings had birthdays within 3 weeks of Dad’s birthday. And, 3 of his cousins celebrated birthdays within that same 6 week time frame.
Dad and Neil
My dad and his cousin Neil celebrated their birthdays 7 days apart. What was unusual is that they were actually born 7 days apart. Still, that wasn’t that unusual in a large growing family.
Over time, the closeness of their birthdays became more meaningful. Neil married first. He and his wife had a daughter, but she only lived a few days. Dad married a couple of months later.
The following year, Neil and his wife had a son 17 days after I was born. Then, three years later both families welcomed baby girls. They were born only two days apart.
None of it was planned, but it did cause some confusion with multiple McCracken babies being born about the same time.