Unusual Coincidences in Family Research

[June]

During the past two weeks I have received three contacts all descended from my gggrandfather. So what is unusual about that? well one of them had a mother and aunt who lived a couple of doors from me when I was a child and I knew them and we played together. I was in the same class at school as his aunt.
Not enough? My second contact was a lady (very closely related) born in Nottingham - who is now living about five minutes drive from my home in Australia....we are meeting for a cuppa and a chat tomorrow.

I hope you are all blessed with the same good fortune....

June (born a Brit, Australian by migration)

[busyglen]

Hi June

I had a similar type of experience earlier this year.

I acquired some information relating to the area I live which is Kent and looked on one of the lists to see if there were any names I could help people with. I selected two and emailed them offering to do a look-up if they thought it would be of interest. Both replied, and indeed I was able to help them. But, it transpires that one who now lives in Canada, went to the same school as I, but we were a couple of years apart, and the other lived in the same road as myself before emigrating to N.Zealand.

We spent a few happy days reminiscing over the old times and current changes.

Strange that I picked two people who although I didn't know personally, actually had something in common with me. I guess the world is a smaller place than we realise!

Glenys

[June]

just how many people we are related to. I think we tend to think of ourselves as a unit consisting of siblings mum and dad , uncles and aunts and of course grandparents... Each time I make contact with somebody I am amazed at the number of people in their family tree who are also related to me, People whos names I have never even heard.
Just recently a birth certificate revealed a name change and this opened up a whole new line of research. One of my husband's ancestors was the second Rabbi of the Sydney Synagogue with three brothers also Rabbis and we had no idea about this.

June

[ChristineR]

just how many people we are related to. I think we tend to think of ourselves as a unit consisting of siblings mum and dad , uncles and aunts and of course grandparents.......

June

When my husband was young the family used to come camping to the lake in this area of Victoria - befriending a young farmer who let them camp on his land near the water. Now, decades later, I find that they have ancestors in common. Whilst not a relative, this friendly bloke and my mother-in-law share a 3rd cousin. If they only knew when sharing all those beers! So I agree with June, I often wonder just how many of these people you pass in the street have a connection?

Christine Randall
Vic Australia

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

These stories have just reminded me of something too! In November 1978, whilst on holiday in St. Ives, Cornwall ...... our 5 month old cream labrador collapsed.

The Vet in Penzance said it was the worst case of hip dysplasia he had ever seen and we had no choice but to 'let her go'.

On the advice of the Vet to my husband, (get your wife another puppy) we spent the following day chasing all over Cornwall looking at pups, unfortunately I was comparing them to our lost one and was advised to buy a black one this time.

We ended up buying a 4 month old black labrador from a dog breeder in Constantine. Years later when I started my family research, I found out that my Ancestors were all born in Constantine and I am the 6th cousin of this dog breeder's wife! :D

[AnnB]

When we made contact with one of my husband's cousins after many years of having 'lost touch', (I had never even met him) it turned out that his wife's life long friend was my 3rd cousin. This hitherto unknown cousin had the same birthday as me and had an almost identical occupation! Spooky :eek:

Best wishes
Ann

[June]

When my husband was young the family used to come camping to the lake in this area of Victoria - befriending a young farmer who let them camp on his land near the water. Now, decades later, I find that they have ancestors in common. Whilst not a relative, this friendly bloke and my mother-in-law share a 3rd cousin. If they only knew when sharing all those beers! So I agree with June, I often wonder just how many of these people you pass in the street have a connection?

Christine Randall
Vic Australia

When we consider that families in general were quite large, and people usually didn't move very far, it is almost inevitable that every family say in Derbyshire - would have a connection of some kind - so coincidences abound.

My research is almost totally in Derbyshire......and the young'uns who married weren't exactly gypsies...as they all seemed to move to the Mansfield area....
On the good side, I don't have to buy too many census CDs to chase them around Derbyshire....

June

[June]

Whilst I had been vaguely interested in my family's history, I really began "proper" study from the other way around!!

From a very remote relative !

The genealogy bug started because a man died, and I inherited some money. In fact, I had the largest share (1/7th) of his estate, and I ended up being the executor of the estate. Of someone I never knew existed!

He was the grandson of my great grandmother's half sister.
Rod


I wish I could have such inspiration.....I can find plenty of money in the family, but none of it came down either my line or my husbands.....<grin>

June

[Sue Mackay]

Recently a fellow subscriber to a mailing list, through the goodness of his heart, helped me smash down a 10 year old brick wall. He is no relation of mine, but got interested in my husband's elusive ancestor in Glasgow, where he lives. Having tracked my elusive chappie through a name change recorded in the poor law records, he was able to find my family on four successive census returns, at four different addresses. At each of these four different addresses in Glasgow our lot were living in the same tenement building as his own family!!!

[Marion]

My mother grew up in Bristol but left in early adulthood. Many years later she returned and took up nursing at the local hospital. When we started our research we found that the hospital was built on land our family had previously owned for over 300 years.

I've found two sets of great grandparents living opposite each other in one census. Nothing remarkable about that - except that it was nearly a century later that their descendants married - I've heard of long engagements but.....

[ChristineR]

I've thought of another co-incidence in my research.

In 1896 paternal grandfather RANDALL was born at 185 Princes St, Carlton (Melbourne suburb, Australia) In 1918, this was the address of maternal grandfather SIMKINS. These two lines did not merge until 1951 with the marriage of my husband's parents - and as far as they know the two families did not know each other at all in the past. I wonder.....

Christine
Vic Australia

[JennyC]

I have 2 instances of spooky coincidence...

I answered a bulletin board post from a relative. He shared my g-g-grandmother who had married twice - I was from her 1st husband's line he came from the 2nd. After a few emails back and forth I discovered that his sister lived in the same city as me. Not so unusual except that there are 2 Public Library Services in this city - I worked for 1 she worked for the other and we had known each other for several years!

I was introduced to Margaret at my Family History Centre Library as she was born in Darwin NT as I was. During the ensuing conversation we discovered that my parents and her father had been friends before and during the 2nd World War. Again not so unusual however during the war her father who was a fighter pilot had sent my parents a beautiful studio photograph of himself. The families had since moved and lost contact but my mother had kept the photo in mint condition and had wondered what she should do with it. To her delight I was able to present Margaret with a fabulous photo of her father which she did not have.

cheers

Jenny

[Sheleen]

Though not quite as dramatic as some coincidences told on this thread... I do have one of my own.

Many many years ago, my great-great-grandmother (on my fathers side) was a gatekeeper living on an estate in Winchester.
Through a bit of research and a lot of help from a recently-found relative, I have discoverd that the place in which my fathers great-grandmother worked and lived was bought by IBM. About 15 years ago, my mums father worked at this IBM... he was a security guard at the gate - what you might call a 'gatekeeper'.
From one side of the family to another... generations apart... and yet standing on the same ground, patrolling and caring for the same area.

I always get a little shiver when I notice birthdays too... my daughter shares her birthday with my great-great-grandfather Elisha. The daughter of the gatekeeper mentioned above... one Annie-Jane (who my father remembers well, and so is the oldest relative known within living family memory), shares her birthday with the youngest member of our family - my brothers daughter, Caitlin.
I'm just waiting to see if I share a birthday with anyone :(

I recently was given a photograph of my great-grandmother when she was a young woman. Aside from obvious differences (hair, clothes, etc)... facially, she is the spit of my eldest daughter. THATS the kind of coincidence I like the best :)

[Ladkyis]

Through the help of a complete stranger I was connected to a branch of my family that had emigrated to Melbourne Australia in the 1880s and 1890s. My new-found cousins were thrilled to have reconnected with family and sent me several copies of old photographs. The likeness between my great grandmother's younger brother and my youngest son came as quite a shock because everyone would take one look at him (my son) and see that he is the spitting image of his father (he could also be taken for Freddie Mercury's double but that's a whole nother ball game eh?). Now I am wondering if I could get away with tracing my ex husbands tree - for my children of course...

Ann

[Sue Mackay]

A couple of years ago I did a lot of research for some American cousins on my husband's side who wanted some help with another line of theirs in the UK. Sod's law meant that because it was not my family I got them back to the 16th century with very little effort! I duly handed over the fruits of this research at a reunion in Texas for descendants of Lachlan Ross of Sutherland in Scotland, but the research all referred to the forebears of a Herbert Langston from Kent, who emigrated to Texas in the 1860s. I had made an initial breakthrough because his sister never married, so I was able to find her under the name Langston on the 1881 and establish where she was born. Long after I had completed the research I was searching the 1901 census and had a few credits left on my voucher, so decided to see what had happened to one of my father's extended family, who had disappeared off the face of the earth. I found her easily enough through the index, living in Tunbridge Wells. Something seemed vaguely familiar about the address - it turned out she was working as a parlourmaid for Elizabeth Langston!! I told my American friends that it appeared my family was born to serve theirs!!

[John Henry]

Try this one!! No bull-dust either! I found my wife's gr-gr gr/father, Robert Berry, who married a Hannah Evershed (1891). So.....?
My 2nd Cousin (??) who lives in London, & gets certificates for me, noticed the Evershed name. He mentioned that there was "a connection" to his ancestors; he is connected to me through my mothers "line".
Sure enough, go back about 8 generations, and there were two brothers who went their merry way in life, and eventually "connected" my wife to me!
John Henry

[kazrbutler]

Circuits seem to have happened in my family too.

I was sharing information with my mother's cousin, about the part of the family which we have in common. She passed on a general history of her family as a whole, and on looking through, I realised that part of her family had lived in the Isle of Axholme area of Lincolnshire. I mentioned that my father's family had links with that area. It turned out that the links were not only living there, but my mother's cousin is also my father's 7th cousin, through the MOATE family.

Not only that, but we traced my paternal grandmother's HILL family in a circle around the town of Retford back to Rampton in Nottinghamshire, only to find that someone from my paternal grandfather's line had also lived in the parish at the same time. My sister also went to live in Rampton for a while completing the circle, before we started researching the family.

[Sharron]

The likeness between my great grandmother's younger brother and my youngest son came as quite a shock because everyone would take one look at him (my son) and see that he is the spitting image of his father
I have a family photograph album. Which would be brilliant, except that most of them are stuck down and most of the ones which have come loose have no indication on them of who is in the photograph. And then you have to wonder who are friends and who are family.

And then I took it into work. There is a delightful photograph from the 19th century of three children. Everybody took one look at them and said, "They're definitely related to you." Even more so when they looked at the photo of my 16 year old neice which sits on my desk.

Still don't know who they are, though! |shakehead

[robbieuk]

My coincidence involves the living!

In 1992 I went to Canada for a five week break. I stayed in Toronto with my great aunt (my maternal grandmother's sister) and her husband in Scarborough. Their only son, his wife and their two sons lived in the same apartment block. The two boys and their mother attended an evangelical church on Sundays - and the boys went to Sunday school after the service -some miles away in Peterborough, Ontario.

Before I went to Canada I spoke to another great aunt (paternal grandfather's sister) and she said that her first cousin lived in Ottowa. I duly tracked down this lovely old lady and her husband and went to stay with them for a week. They had four children, one of whom (son number three)...had moved away from Ottowa when he got married, and had moved to Peterborough. Not only that, but his new wife was a Sunday school teacher at the local evangelical church.

Yes, my maternal second cousins spend every Sunday afternoon with the wife of my paternal second cousin once removed!

Small, small world!

[morrisb2]

I contacted a woman via email who was researching a common ancestor. She referred me to another woman who was also researching that line. We corresponded and discovered that not only were we 3rd cousins on my mother's side, we grew up in the same small town (less than 2000 souls) that my father did. Her younger brothers went to school with my older sisters, and her parents banked at the bank where my father worked. Small world.

[Sheleen]

My mother discovered that a wonderful old dear who sat in front of her at church is her father' mothers' sisters' daughter (her dads cousin, I believe?).

My mum and this woman had sat and talked often of their families, never realising until my grandfather passed away that they were related.

Last week, my dad picked my mum up from Sunday School (she helps run it) and instantly noticed a young woman helping my mum... and the young lady noticed my dad too. My dad was her dads best friend. Not a genealogical coincidence, I know... but a nice one nevertheless.

One strange little thing about the first coincidence... the Salvation Army is somewhat well known for helping trace long-lost family members. The church my mum goes to, along with the wonderful old dear....? Its the Salvation Army.

[lucygrasshopper]

My mother and I researched the McKay/Mackay Family on my mother's side. This research took her to Scotland three times, and me to the brink of dispair
considering the repetative nature of Clan naming.

Eventually, there was a very thick book published in Australia, on the Australian decendants of a particular Clan McKay member.

My son is adopted. He met up with a girl, liked her - visited her home and there he spied, on a shelf - the thick McKay book of Australian members of this Clan.

My son picked up the book and said "I'm in here"

His Girlfriend replied "So am I"

Well, although adopted, My son took pride of place in the line as I made no distinction.

They married in 1998. His wife and I share a 7x GGrandfather. They now have two children - both blood related.
Lucy

[Justme]

My partner & I come from opposite ends of the country & met in London. Family research has shown that we both had direct ancestors living near each other in Worksop in the early 1800s, who both (much thanks to archivecd's directories), were bakers & flour dealers, & then they ended up in the same cemetery!
Ess.

[Raphael]

Hello All
My revelation may not be as interesting as some of the ones of these very interesting posts. But here goes.

For quite a long time my family friends and I had been searching for one of my mothers youngest sisters. We knew her name, and that she was a novice nun and also the first school she attended. There was no record of a Birth at the church, and after many emails and letters to various convents in and around the area, and talks with many (Sisters) Nuns, they told us there was a national registery and they would contact them. They found no trace anywhere.

We eventually found her middle name Josephine, but were not sure if her first name was Marie or Maria. How we missed seeing it on the census's I will never know, because her death was registerd and eventually a cousin of the family obtained a Death crtificate. She died at home in the precence of her father, in my Grandma's house where I played as a child. She died of Tuberculosis on 2nd Oct 1929 at the age of 20. which was approximately 2 years and 5 months after I was born. When filing the certificate in a folder I saw my Birth Certificate. and I was working out my age at that time...and the conincidence was the Registers signature was N Whittaker and it was the idenical signature on my Birth Certifcate in 1927....yes I am that old .
I was so happy that my "short term memory loss" was not as bad as I thought it was.

Happy New year to All
Raphael UK & Germany

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Hi Raphael,

A similar thing happened to me. My daughter's birth was registered at Altrincham Register Office (Cheshire) in 1969, the Registrar's name was E. Bradley.

When I married my second husband, at Sale Register Office (Cheshire) in 1976 ....... E. Bradley was the Registrar who performed the ceremony. I didn't realise/remember this at the time, it was only when I saw the name and the signature on our marriage cert, that 'the penny dropped'. ;)