52 Ancestors 52 Weeks - Birthdays

Birthdays are so important to us now but in the past they weren’t celebrated as we do and they had no need to remember the date.  No drivers licenses, social security application, credit card applications.

My Grandmother, Mamie McGuigan Mathews, came to Ireland when she was about 20 and married. She never celebrated her birthday.  Her husband, William Mathews, was born in 1884, in New York and never celebrated his birthday either.

My other grandfather, John Moore born in Savannah, Georgia 1889 never celebrated a birthday.

Not until I was working on our family history and looked up the documents did I know when any of these relatives were born.

We found Mamie’s birth date when her daughter, Catherine (Kay) Mathews Hurley, sent for her birth certificate from Ireland so she could apply for social security under her late husband.  It turns out the husband and wife were both born on July 3, one in 1875 and the other 1884. There is still some question as to what year William Mathews was born, it was always July 3 but in the baptismal record in was 1884, in the WW1 draft record it was 1882 and his WW 11 draft record it was 1883.  They could have celebrated together all those years.

John Moore’s birth date was July 2, 1889.  The document never came to be because Savannah, GA did not require any documentation until 1919.  I found his date from the Social Security Application he filled out in 1936 when they became available.  I did eventually find his baptismal record to confirm this date.

We make birthdays real special these days, which I am very happy about.  It is an important date in our lives.