Family sets Guinness record for most generations sharing a birthday
Five generations of one American family now hold a Guinness World Record after being born on the same date over a span of 118 years.
The Bell-Harlow family holds the record for the most generations born on the same day, according to Guinness World Records. The five family members all celebrate their birthdays on Sept. 14, with the eldest born in 1907 and the youngest arriving in 2025.
The birthday streak began with Wilber Harlow, who was born on Sept. 14, 1907. His daughter, Addie Harlow, followed in 1949, while his grandson Donald “Fred” Harlow was born on the same date in 1972.
Fred’s daughter, Emma Bell, was then born on Sept. 14, 1997. The family’s streak reached five generations when Emma’s son, Arthur Bell, was born on the same date in 2025.
For years, the shared birthday was simply a family coincidence. Emma said she grew up hearing her grandmother tell her, “You have to have a boy on September 14th,” a reminder she repeated every year.
When Emma became pregnant with her second child and learned that the due date was Sept. 14, she was determined to see if the family tradition could continue. Her first child had arrived early, but Arthur was born on the due date.
“I went early with my first, so I was bound and determined to make it our due date,” Emma told KMTV.
Arthur’s arrival made the family the first recorded five-generation line to share the same birthday. Guinness noted that while several families had previously reached four generations with the same birthday, the Bell-Harlow family is the first to have five generations documented.
The coincidence does not stop with the shared date. The five generations also alternate between boys and girls: Wilber, Addie, Fred, Emma, and Arthur form a boy-girl-boy-girl-boy sequence.
“It starts with Wilber, so it actually goes boy, girl, boy, girl, boy—the entire way through,” Emma said.
Fred said the family has always found their shared birthdays special but never seriously considered that they could become record holders.
“You know, when you have children, yeah, they're a gift, this is a very unique gift,” he told KMTV. “We always thought it was pretty cool, but we never really—I never thought much about it as far as record holder.”
Now, the family has an official Guinness title to add to their annual birthday celebrations. Emma said she believes her late grandmother would have been proud that the tradition continued with Arthur’s birth.
“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,” she said.
