When I started this year of #52Ancestors I focused on the birthdays, hoping it would give me some way to focus on who to write about. I only had on person with my birthday in common and that was me! Now, after 9 months of research and writing, I find voila! that I have three relatives in common.
The first is a sad one: and infant son born on 7 August 1816 to Nicholas and Elizabeth Van Ripen Vreeland. He died in 1817, and I suspect that he was buried in the Vreeland plot at the old Bergen Burying ground in Jersey City but those burials were moved early in the 20th century and I do not know where he was moved to. In fact, this poor soul really only shows up in an old family history: The History and Genealogy of the Vreeland family.
The second shared birthday is with Leroy “Roy” Rue (1878-1941). He married one of Benjamin and Mary Elizabeth Carroll Jones‘ daughters, Rebecca Clevenger Jones. He was for 37 years an employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad and he was a member of the Jr. OUAM and the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen.
The third shared birthday is with Earl Goodman Jr. (1925-2008). I know very little about him. The Goodman surname joins my tree via the Lewis family. I am descended from the oldest daughter of Samuel and Sarah Herr Lewis (Florence). The second daughter Josephine married a Harry Goodman. Their son Earl is the father of my birthday mate, Earl Jr. He was a veteran of World War II having served in the Navy. I believe that he died in Vineland, NJ in 2008 but this line definitely needs more work.
Telling My Story 