SILVER CITY, Iowa — A southwest Iowa family has officially set a world record: five consecutive generations all share the same birthday.
Fred Harlow is in the middle of those five generations — all born on Sept. 14. His grandfather Wilber, his mother Addie, his daughter Emma Bell, and her son Arthur are now being recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the family with the most generations born on the same day.
“You know, when you have children yeah, they’re a gift, this is a very unique gift,” Fred said. “We always thought it was pretty cool, but we never really — I never thought much of it as far as record holder. Just kind of figured everything happened for a reason.”
Only recently did they pursue official recognition.
“We always joked about it. Like, ‘Oh, it’s four generations, it should be a world record,’” Emma said.
She learned the family had actually been tied with other families at four generations, but never thought to submit the paperwork. That changed after her grandmother Addie died and Emma learned she was expecting her second child, with a due date of Sept. 14.
“I grew up with my grandma saying ‘You have to have a boy on Sept. 14.’ Every year, is what she would say,” Emma said. “I went early with my first, so I was bound and determined to make it our due date.”
Her son Arthur arrived right on time.
“Lo and behold, he’s a record breaker,” Fred said.
They believe her Addie would have been thrilled.
“I think she’d be pretty proud and pretty impressed that we actually made it happen and had it be a boy on the 14th,” Emma said.
The shared birthday comes with another remarkable pattern.
“It starts with Wilber, so it actually goes boy, girl, boy, girl, boy — the entire way through,” Emma said.
Neither Emma nor Fred want to put any pressure on the next generation. For now, they will continue to enjoy celebrating their record-setting birthdays together.
“It’s just amazing,” Fred said.
“It’s been fun,” Emma said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. KMTV verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Katrina Markel, KMTV, CNN
