What are the Odds?

The odds of having one set of twins are about one in 30. The odds of having two randomly chosen people share the same birthday are about one in 75. But what on earth are the odds of three sets of twins in the same family all sharing the exact same birthday?

That is the question members of the extended Berger family have been asking themselves, after a revelation a little under three years and a little over three generations in the making. Michael Berger, who is the grandparent of one set of twins, and cousin to the two others, described discovering the connection.

“The first set of twins, the two girls that turned 82, when I told them my daughter had twins – I knew they were twins, and they said, ‘wouldn’t you know, that’s our birthday!’” related Berger. “But I didn’t know [about the other twins] for another two years – when my cousin called […] and I told her our twins were born on the same day as the others, and she said, ‘what about my twins? They were born on that day, too.’ That’s when we all figured it out and decided to put together a family party.”

The timing was almost perfect, as the shared birthday was just a couple months out. Berger reserved the River Room at Ray’s on the River for Oct. 11 and invited as much family as he could find. This wasn’t particularly difficult, as most of the extended Berger family, native Atlantans for four generations, was in town – although one of the twins was living in Miami Beach. That twin, Rebecca Patt, hadn’t lived in Atlanta since high school and was in for something of a shock.

“Growing up, I didn’t see my cousins very much, and I wasn’t aware of the family lineage from Hungary,” said Patt. “My mom just contacted me, and she started telling me this story, and how Michael Berger was planning this party, and I thought it was an incredible piece of family genealogy to suddenly find me.”

Michael Berger, who is something of a family historian, explained the lineage: His grandparents, Joseph and Minnie Berger, immigrated to the U.S. from Hungary, settled in Atlanta, and had three children, Eddie, Nathan, and Sidney – all of whom would become active members at Ahavath Achim. The middle son, Nathan, had twin girls, Helaine and Rochelle, born Oct. 13, 1943. The oldest son, Eddie, was grandfather to a set of boy-girl twins, Rebecca Patt and Todd Patt, born Oct. 13, 1976. The third son, Sidney, was Michael’s father, and therefore great-grandfather to the last set of twins, born Oct. 13, 2022. All in all, that’s three sets of twins, spread evenly across three generations, all in the same family, all with the same birthday, all with a shared heritage from Joseph and Minnie Berger.

“Some of the older cousins at the party, including Michael and Helaine, stood up and told stories about growing up with Joseph and Minnie, and I was just mesmerized to hear their stories, and see the old photos,” said Rebecca Patt. “Even though I never met them, hearing stories from my older cousins helped me understand the kind of people they were, and I feel like I know them through the love and memories that have been passed down now. It’s powerful to realize that I’m part of a much bigger legacy that I knew of before.”

For Michael Berger, this event was also important for keeping the family legacy alive, something he spoke about at length at the event.

“My brother and myself – everybody in my family – either the guys didn’t get married, or everybody had girls. So, my brother and I and Rochelle’s brother – we’re the last of the Bergers of this Atlanta group, the one that came from Hungary,” Michael Berger said. “Whoever lives the longest is the last one. But I ended it with [the fact that] the blood of the Bergers is still in everybody’s blood, so even though our name goes away, the bloodlines still exists.”

For Rebecca Patt, the shared birthdays, coincidence or fate, are a reminder of that shared connection.

“What are the odds that we’d have three sets of fraternal twins in the same family all with the same birthday?” she asked. “It feels like a little wink from the universe, and now every Oct. 13 will feel like a much more special celebration of our family’s legacy.”