Ancestors Sharing My Birthday: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Birthdays”

 

Tracking Down People in My Tree Who Share My Birthday

Henry Ballard: 1768- 1826   (Second Cousin 6x Removed)
James Wayne Randall: 1855-1942 (Second Cousin 2x Removed)
Everett Powell Bradley: 1900-1983 (Third Cousin 2x Removed)
Joyce Beverly Ford: 1940- Living     (Second Cousin 1x Removed)

When I saw that the prompt for the week of my birthday was “Birthdays”, I decided to find ancestors in my tree who had the same birth date as I do. I foolishly thought this would be easy—after all, Ancestry informed me of ancestors’ birthdays each week on my home page. Unfortunately, I was busy on my birthday and didn’t log in to Ancestry for a few days, so I missed the notifications for July 20. But surely there must be a way to search my tree by birthdate, right? I couldn’t find information on the Ancestry website, so I googled the question “Is there a way to search your tree on Ancestry by birthday?” Several people on Reddit said no, although all agreed it would be a great feature.

However, one person suggested a clever workaround: go to the Tree Search tab and select List People, which provides a list of all the people in your tree along with their birth and death dates. He suggested copying the list to a Google doc and somehow searching that by the date. However, I have 8000 people in my tree, and had no desire to create such a large, unwieldy document. I decided to search the list the old-fashioned way, skimming it page by page, one hundred names at a time, looking for a July 20 birthdate.

I got tired and quit halfway on page 40 of my 80 page list, but I had found four ancestors who fit the bill. I now have a custom tag on them so I can find them again. None are close ancestors, but here are quick sketches of these four people who share my birthday.

Henry Ballard: My Second Cousin 6x Removed

Henry was born July 20, 1768 in New Salem, Massachusetts to parents Daniel Ballard and Ruth Houlton. Our common ancestor was my 7^th Great-grandfather Francis Dane. Henry’s grandmother, Mary Dane, was Francis’ daughter and sister to my ancestor John Dane. She married Jeremiah Ballard, and their son Daniel Ballard was Henry’s father. Henry Ballard married Anna Sabin, and the couple had at least six children. In 1792, the family moved from New Salem to the town of Georgia in Franklin, Vermont. There is little information on Henry—it appears he was a farmer. He died February 2, 1826 and was buried in the Sabin Cemetery in Georgia, which seems to have been a family cemetery for his wife’s family. This family connection probably explains why the couple moved to Georgia, Vermont.

Henry Ballard Headstone from Findagrave

James Wayne Randall: My Second Cousin 2x Removed

James and I share a common ancestor, my third great-grandfather David Dane. David Dane was James’ great-grandfather, and his grandmother Lucy was my second-great-grandfather Jerome Dane’s sister. James was born July 20, 1855 in Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin. He was the oldest son of David and Lucy Randall. By 1880, James was married to Gertrude Hopkins and had moved to Janesville, Minnesota, quite near his great-uncle Jerome Dane’s family. He and Gertrude raised six children, and he worked as a laborer, a farmer and a mechanic over the years. He died at age 86 in Northfield, where he was living at the Odd Fellows Home for the Aged.

         

Everett Powell Bradley: My Third Cousin 2x Removed)

Everett Powell Bradley and I share my great grandfather John Mills as a common ancestor. Everett was born July 20, 1900 to parents Arthur Bradley and Gertrude Sophia Powell. Gertrude was the granddaughter of John Mills’ daughter Jemima Mills, who was my ancestor Joel Mills’ sister. Everett was born in Virginia, but his family moved to New Jersey. Everett married Lillie Reeve, and they had a son and daughter. He was a high school teacher in Mount Holly, teaching industrial arts or shop classes. In addition, he operated Holly Hill Apiaries and Nursery for forty years, following in his beekeeping grandfather’s footsteps. In a 1974 news article, Everett stated that, “”I used to rent out 400 or 500 colonies” of bees to farmers to pollinate their crops. He said there were about 30,000 bees per colony. Each colony could produce about 100 pounds of honey per year. In the 1973 article below, he estimated he had between 450,000 to 750,000 bees at that time, with the bees collecting nectar from the blooms of his 100 holly trees. What a fascinating business! Everett died April 26, 1983 at the age of 83.

Joyce Beverly Ford (Second Cousin 1x Removed)

I discovered Joyce when she turned up as a DNA match on Ancestry. She was the daughter of my first cousin twice removed Dorothy Haslip and her husband Leland Ford. Dorothy was the daughter of Laura Hoffman, my great-grandfather William Hoffman’s sister. Our shared common ancestors are Laura and William’s parents Johannes Hoffman and Sophia Streu Hoffman. Joyce was born on my birthdate in 1940. She is married and lives in North Carolina.

It was fun finding these four individuals in my family tree who share my birthday. Happy birthday to all of them!