Birth anniversaries...

Charles Darwin
Abraham Lincoln
Elizabeth (Bettie) Bass Rogers

Darwin in 1854

About the only thing they have in common is the same birthdate.  Charles Darwin was born 
...  in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, on 12 February 1809, at his family's home, The Mount. He was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor and financier Robert Darwin and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood). He was the grandson of two prominent abolitionists: Erasmus Darwin on his father's side, and Josiah Wedgwood on his mother's side.  (Source: Wikipedia)

Lincoln in 1846

Abraham Lincoln was born Feb. 12...
...1809, as the second child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farmnear Hodgenville, Kentucky.  He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk, to its namesake Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1638. Samuel's grandson and great-grandson began the family's westward migration, passing through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  Lincoln's paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Kentucky, in the 1780s. Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas,) the future president's father, witnessed the attack. After his father's murder, Thomas worked at odd jobs in Kentucky and in Tennessee, before settling with members of his family in Hardin County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s.  (Source: Wikipedia)

So these two noteworthy men were born on the same exact day!

Huntsville Texas 19th century

My great grandmother Bettie Bass Rogers, was mentioned in my last 2 posts...being married to William Sandford Rogers, and who was the son of George Washington Rogers.

She was born in 1860, according to the date Feb 12, given by her son-in-law on her death certificate in 1924.  She had been living with her daughter Annie Lou Gibbs Rogers Wilson and Patrick Henry Wilson since at least the census of 1920 census.

However, her birthdate may have been in May of 1854, according to at least 2 census records when she was the head of household, not living with her daughter.  Since there's no specific date in May, I've been using the Feb. 12, 1860 birthdate.  However, if she was 6 years older, that would change the age she was when she married, and when she became a widow just 2 years later.

I've also blogged about Great Grandmother Bettie several times, and each time I write about her, I have to guess a lot, and may make some assumptions.  
Being named after an aunt?  
Her birth, wedding etc.

I think this is Huntsville Texas in the 1800s

Since she was first mentioned in a census of 1860 as being 5 months old (census actually taken on July 31) I think that gives a bit more indication that she really was born on Feb. 12, 1860.
One of my assumptions was that her father Col. Richard Bass had been in the Civil War as a soldier.  But other genealogists have mentioned that he was too old to actually fight so he would have been part of the "home front" and received an honorary title. (He was born in 1819, so would have been 42 which was probably within a range for fighting, in 1861)

Genealogy may sound like it deals with facts, but I seem to learn new things, and conflicting information frequently.  So for now, Happy Birthday Great Grandmother Bettie!