My great-grandfather Albertus Klinge and I share a birthday.

He was born on February 1, 1858 in Gramsbergen, a small town on the river in the Netherlands. When he was 29 years old, he married 19-year old Joanna Tiebert who also lived in the same town of ~1,000 people.

They started having kids, and they moved to Holland, Michigan just before the turn of the century.

By the time my grandfather Albert came along in 1909, they already had so many kids that they had to start using the same names over again! The first Albert had died in 1904.

Albertus was a wooden-shoe maker, and he made over 200,000 pairs of shoes in his life! I remember having a pair as a kid, and they were the most uncomfortable shoes ever.

Happy Heavenly Birthday Albertus (and second place is still really good)!