Birth Stories

24 February 2009 by Libbi.

Were any of your ancestors born in a snowstorm, or some important day in history? Start interviewing older relatives now about birthday stories!

23 years ago today, my son was born. The moon was full, the weather chilly but not that cold. We had been in our house on Mountain Gap just about three months exactly. Mark took Marianne to get some McDonald’s for supper and as soon as they left the driveway, the first real “this is it” pain hit.

About five hours later, Matthew Stephen Crowe decided to make his entrance.  As soon as I saw his face, calm and somehow dignified, I called him “Mr. Matthew”. No squalling or fussing for this young gentleman: he simply looked around. I know, pediatricians will tell you that’s impossible. But he did.

He caught some sort of virus 24 hours later and was in intensive care with a fever when I went home from the hospital . At the same time, my boss’ daughter in law was giving birth to his first grandchild, but three months premature. So she and I bonded in the neonatal ICU. After a few days, we got Matthew home, and we all cherished him. He had a habit of making a growly, grunty noise when happy, so we called him “MatthewBear” sometimes.

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Collecting the birth stories in genealogy is part of the fun.

• Legend has it that a Dr. Toxie saved one of my ancestors in childbirth, and “Toxie” has been a middle name in our family ever since.
•  Mother always claimed she had bought my father shirts for his birthday in 1955, but as I was born on that day, she just took them back and gave him me instead.
• At my first birthday party my parents introduced a friend from NASA to my godmother’s sister; three months later they married and one year later had their daughter Kathy.
• My father was born March 19, 1926, the same week Goddard tested his first liquid fueled rocket. J. T. grew up to be a rocket scientist.

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