In a lot of ways, they were very similar. Some of it was surely genetic, like
Oscar and
Jack both tending to sneeze the same number of times. Some was pure coincidence, like the
Jim twins. They were adopted by different families across the country and were both named
James. One's middle name was
Alan and one's
Allen. You got to figure, in that time (late forties and early fifties, I think)
James Allen/Alan was a very popular combo. Both had married women named
Linda, which was of course VERy popular for women their age. Both divorced
Linda and married Bettys.
Other things, the coincidence was just too odd to ignore, like the fact that the Jims, though they lived very far apart, both took vacations to the same beach area.
That paper was about the only research paper that I really enjoyed working on.