General Chat

I was wondering if anyone else has had any coincidences while researching their family? So far these are mine. 1) when our daughter and husband were moving house from the Midlands to North East they were let down on one sale, gazzumped on the next then found a house that the sale went through ok on. Shortly afterwards I received a copy of my g granny's death certificate and the address of her house was the one our daughter had just bought. 2) A couple of weeks ago an older cousin phoned to say she and her husband had been allocated a retired miners cottage. She gave me the phone number and address which 'rang a bell' They have just moved into the same cottage as our Paternal grandparents had lived in. 3) I never knew my Paternal grandparents as they were dead before I was born and my father never spoke of them. When I obtained their birth certificates I found that our eldest daughter had the same birthday as my grandfather and our son the same birthday as my grandmother. 4) My Godmother died on my birthday and my father, who was Godfather to her son, died on the son's birthday. I'd love to hear of other folks coincidences or is it only me these things happen to?

Daphne A couple of months ago, I obtained a copy of my great-grandfather's birth certificate. Imagine my surprise to discover that he was born on 5th October 1846. I was born on 5th October 1946! 100 years between us - exactly! Janet East Northamptonshire

Hi, In the early days of my research I was at Coventry LDS FHL looking at a film of the Parish records of Lowestoft. The regular LDS volunteers were on holiday and John was standing in. He looked over my shoulder and remarked that he was a Lowestoft boy himself. He then asked if I had any Clarkes on my tree. I replied that Dad's sister Gladys married Wallace Clarke. He nearly fainted. His father and Wallace were brothers. My uncle by marriage was also his blood uncle. Further discussion and swapping of trees resulted in our discovery that we were also blood related - we are 4th cousins twice removed via the Edmonds family. Gwynne

I have mentioned this before. When my Dad died in 1999, we chose a short verse for his memorial card 'a light is from our household gone' etc. Last year, after much searching, we finally found his grandmother's grave. We knew already that the pair of them had died of identical causes - identical on their death certificates - following a blood clot in the same leg in each case. However, when we got to the grave there was the same verse we had used for Dad! Maz. XX

Arthur Koestler, philosopher, remarked " Coincidences happen too often for them to be coincidences"

Years ago my husband went to Leicester County Record Office to look up some ancestors of mine in Exton, Rutland. After he had been there a while, someone else asked for the microfiche for Exton. The staff told him they were being used by somebody but if they sat next to each other they could perhaps share, which they did. The other guy asked my husband what name he was researching in Exton. He said "Newey". The other guy said, "but that's my name, who are you". He was my second cousin who I had never met. We have kept in constant touch ever since and still share info. Margaret

When I added a message on Janet’s Northampton thread last week telling Kaz&Rus that it was possible to escape Northampton as we had done so in 1988, she and I didn’t expect to find the following: A section of Kaz’s Bodily family moved to Woodend and Blakesley in the 1800s where my Whitlocks and Kingstons have been since the 1800s and 1600s respectively, and the Bodilys are mentioned in the book my great uncle wrote about these two villages. My Whitlocks originally came from Blisworth in Northants, where Kaz lived for about 3 years. I went to Barry Road Junior School - Kaz and Rus learned to swim there. (We were probably all taught by Mrs Howard who as far as I know taught the whole of Northampton to swim over a period of about 50 years!!) I lived in Hartwell when I married first time - Kaz’s father lives there. I then lived in Roade - Rus worked there. When I remarried I lived on the Parklands estate. Kaz’s in-laws live there. I taught secretarial studies at Nene College - Kaz’s daughter is currently training to be a legal secretary at Nene College. When I was training to teach, the wife of a teacher at Tiffield Boys Reform School was training with me - Kaz’s first swimming lessons were at Tiffield BRS. In the last few weeks, we have both broken through London brickwalls whilst researching our husbands’ ancestors! However, we’ve both contacted people who left messages on London lists 2 or 3 years ago and I’ve found 2 second cousins for my husband but Kaz’s would-be contacts are no longer using the board. But finally, what I haven’t told her yet, is that where she lives now is where my husband was born!!! ... ... Now I have told her, it turns out Kaz and Rus live 2 minutes' walk away from where Paul was born; Rus lived 5 minutes' walk away from where Paul went to school, and was born the year he joined the RAF!! Sue

Hello I have been searching for a long time information on seven photography awards or medals which my husbands Grandfather won the earliest we know of is 1909. At last this week I have found a very helpful woman in a photography society who is going to help me. And guess what, she lives in the same street that Grandfather lived in all those years ago. I was totally amazed. Shirley

I was checking the Gloucestershire Surnames list the other day and found someone was looking for the same names as me - turned out it was me (I had forgotten I had registered my interests on the site nearly two years ago). But the amazing thing was that 4 lines above me was Marly's name - I must have registered my interests within hours of her posting her interests as each new registration is numbered consecutively. Teresa - Keelings from where? Sue