Four generations of family born on same day

Logan Horn has something in common with his aunt, grandmother and great-great-grandmother - but he doesn't know it yet.

All four were born on the same day: March 5.

Logan, son of Joel Horn and Cesily Mason, was delivered Friday in an emergency Caesarean-section at Elgin's Sherman Hospital. While many consider a birth miraculous in itself, even more miraculous perhaps are the odds that Logan would be born on the same day as his female relatives: 1 in more than 17.7 billion.

"Everybody is really excited," said grandma Jean Bennefield, also born on March 5. "We all think this is the coolest thing ever."

The first family member born on March 5 was Bennefield's grandmother, Josephine Sulek. Sulek was born in rural Poland in 1901, eventually moving to Chicago's northwest side, where she and her husband raised their granddaughter Jean. Sulek died just a few months shy of her 80th birthday.

After Bennefield, the third generation born on March 5 was her daughter, Samantha Mason, born in 1990. Samantha's sister, Cesily, is Logan's mother.

The family first had an inkling that Logan might unwittingly following the family tradition when doctors told Cesily, who lives with her mother in Harvard, that her due date was March 7.

As the date approached, Cesily was scheduled to have induced labor on March 5, but on Thursday doctors moved the date back to Sunday.

"I was pretty upset," Cesily said. But Friday morning, "I went into labor anyways."

On Friday, three generations of the Bennefield-Mason-Horn family gathered in a Sherman Hospital room to celebrate the arrival of their newest member.

"I think it's really special," Cesily said. "I'm happy for him because he has that bond with his aunt and his grandma."

Said Grandma Jean: "I got my birthday wish after all."