They Lived Separate Lives for 39 Years

Jim Lewis and Jim Springer grew up in different families, apart from one another. When they reunited in 1979 at age 39, they discovered that far more than their names had followed remarkably similar paths.

The Same Names Reappeared in Their Relationships and Families

Both had first married women named Linda and later divorced. Both then married women named Betty.

One twin named his son James Alan; the other chose James Allan, differing by just one letter.

The similarities did not end there: each had an adoptive brother named Larry, and each had a childhood dog named Toy.

Their Interests and Life Choices Were Similar Too

Both brothers had law-enforcement-related training and worked part-time as deputy sheriffs in Ohio. Both were good at mathematics but weaker at spelling, and both were interested in carpentry, mechanical drawing and block lettering.

They had even vacationed, without knowing it, along the same three-block stretch of beach in Florida.

The Jim Twins Also Drew Scientific Attention

Their extraordinary reunion caught the attention of researchers at the University of Minnesota. The Jim twins later became one of the best-known examples associated with the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, which examined similarities among identical twins raised separately.

Two lives lived without knowing about each other... the same names, similar relationships, similar choices and recurring details. Do you think all of this was merely coincidence?

Sources: University of Minnesota, Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research; Bouchard et al., Science (1990).

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The 2013 Boating Accident

When a boat carrying five people capsized in bad weather, three people were rescued; Kenan Ozgur Atakay and Turgut Bulbul went missing. Search operations for Kenan Atakay continued for days, and his body was recovered on December 14, 2013.

The Uncle He Was Named After Had Also Died in the Same Lake

According to information given by family relative Goksel Atakay to Anadolu Agency, Kenan had been named after his uncle, who years earlier had drowned in Seyhan Dam Lake and whose body, according to the family, had never been found despite searches.

Years later, the nephew carrying the same name also lost his life in a water accident in the same lake, a parallel the family described as striking.

Sources: Anadolu Agency (December 13, 2013), Ihlas News Agency (December 14, 2013).

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1838: Richard Parker in Poe’s Novel

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket In the novel, four men are stranded at sea. When hunger becomes unbearable, they draw lots to decide who will be sacrificed so the others can survive. The chosen man is named Richard Parker.

1884: The Real Richard Parker in the Mignonette Case

Exactly 46 years later, the yacht Mignonette sank, leaving its four person crew stranded in a small lifeboat. After days without food, the 17 year old cabin boy was killed and the others consumed his body to survive. His name was also Richard Parker.

The incident later became one of the most well known cases in English legal history, R v Dudley and Stephens and the fact that the real victim shared the same name as the fictional character remains one of the most striking documented parallels.

Sources: Edgar Allan Poe’s 1838 work (Project Gutenberg) and the court record of R v Dudley and Stephens (1884).

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The First Accident

In western Finland, a 71 year old man riding a bicycle was struck and killed by a truck. Police were still working to confirm his identity.

Two Hours Later

About two hours later, another cyclist was killed by a truck on the same road. Authorities later learned that the second man was the first victim’s identical twin brother.

The brothers died on the same day, on the same road and in remarkably similar circumstances, without knowing that the other had been in an accident. That is what made the story so unusual.

Sources: Reuters, March 6, 2002.

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Edwin Booth Saved Robert Lincoln

Around 1864, President Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln fell into the gap between a moving train and the platform at a station in New Jersey. Famous actor Edwin Booth grabbed him and pulled him to safety.

Months Later, the Other Booth

Edwin Booth’s brother John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. One member of the Booth family had therefore saved a Lincoln, while another killed a different Lincoln.

The events were unrelated, but the appearance of the same two family names in such opposite circumstances has become one of history’s most memorable coincidences.

Sources: HISTORY, “6 Famous Coincidences.”

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The Fictional Titan

In the novel, Titan strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks. There are also too few lifeboats for everyone on board, contributing to the loss of life.

Titanic 14 Years Later

In 1912, the real RMS Titanic also struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank. Titanic likewise did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone aboard.

The Library of Congress notes that Robertson’s work appeared 14 years before Titanic and that the similarities in the story are striking. It is more accurate to view this as a remarkable documented literary-historical coincidence rather than a prediction of the future.

Sources: Library of Congress; Project Gutenberg.

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1865: Abraham Lincoln

Robert was near his father after Abraham Lincoln was shot in 1865.

1881: James A. Garfield

Years later, while serving as Secretary of War, Robert Lincoln was at a Washington train station preparing to travel with President James A. Garfield when Garfield was shot.

1901: William McKinley

In 1901, President William McKinley invited Robert Lincoln to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Around the time Robert arrived, McKinley was also shot.

Robert Lincoln’s close proximity to events involving three presidential assassinations is one of the more unusual recurring patterns recorded in history.

Sources: HISTORY, “6 Famous Coincidences.”

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1835: His Birth

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born on November 30, 1835, while Halley’s Comet was visible during that period.

His Remark About His Own Death

Years later, Twain remarked that he had come in with Halley’s Comet and expected to go out with it when it returned. The comet came back in 1910.

Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910, just one day after the comet passed perihelion.

Sources: HISTORY, “6 Famous Coincidences.”

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1911: Olympic

Jessop was working aboard RMS Olympic when it collided with HMS Hawke. Olympic was badly damaged but did not sink.

1912: Titanic

One year later, Jessop was serving aboard RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage. When Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, she escaped in a lifeboat.

1916: Britannic

During World War I, she served aboard the hospital ship HMHS Britannic, which struck a mine and sank. Jessop survived this disaster as well.

After surviving serious incidents involving all three sister ships, Jessop later became known as “Miss Unsinkable.”

Sources: HISTORY, “6 Famous Coincidences.”

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August 6, 1945: Hiroshima

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on business when the atomic bomb exploded. He was injured but survived and later returned to his home city of Nagasaki.

August 9, 1945: Nagasaki

While Yamaguchi was at work describing what he had witnessed in Hiroshima, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. He survived the second bombing as well.

According to Smithsonian, other people also experienced both bombings, but Yamaguchi was the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as a survivor of both.

Sources: Smithsonian Magazine; HISTORY.

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1861: The War Reached His Home

The First Battle of Bull Run, one of the Civil War’s first major land battles, took place around the McLean family’s home and property in Virginia. Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard also used McLean’s house as a headquarters.

1865: The Surrender Was Signed in His New Home

McLean later moved his family to Appomattox Court House to get away from the war. Yet on April 9, 1865, the location selected for the surrender meeting between General Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant was McLean’s new parlor instead.

McLean’s life became connected with both one of the war’s first major battles and the surrender that effectively ended it, each at a different home.

Sources: HISTORY, “6 Famous Coincidences”; National Park Service records.