Genealogy Chat

That's brilliant Kate, I love 'small world' stories like this! Mandy :)

I am constantly being amazed by 'coincidences' since I started this hobby - I do often wonder if they are coincidence or some greater force at work. I think I put on a thread here last week or so about a hotmatch who contacted me and had seen a living Horstead in Bulawayo on my listings. She asked if I were Heather Horstead who lived at .....................Bulawayo. I said that was my aunt. It turned out this lady - also a maiden Horstead's sister had worked with my Uncle Jim Horstead in Bulawayo a couple of decades ago. They had commented on the coincidence of them having the same unusual name. I was able to tell her that her direct ancestor was the cousin of mine and they went down to Stepney together in the 1830s. We actually shared GGPx4. She was amazed.

How amazing!!! Yesterday I wasn't on here much because I was looking at my own tree (LOL).....several times I popped back on here to see what was happening and on two occasions there was someone asking for a lookup for the same name (both first name and surname) I already had tapped into Ancestry for my own research!! Spooky! Merry

just nudging it up for anybody who didn't see it earlier, as I still can't believe it! Kate.

Like I said, Elaine, it was at the branch library, and you probably wouldn't have learned anything you didn't already know unless you found one of your relatives there!! I only really went along to support a local event to be honest, because some events in this area are not very well attended. My partner is going to be so surprised when I tell him! (He's not home from work yet) Kate.

Fantastic Kate, if I remember right you are in Nottingham, me too, missed that one Elaine

how amazing lucky you , Why dont those things happen to me ????

I went along to an Introducing Family History talk at my local branch library this afternoon. Turnout was eight plus the librarian. The person doing the talk was from the Local History Library in the city where I live (none of my ancestors nor my partner's come from this city). She had a lot of ground to cover in one hour, and she had brought along a few examples of certificates, census entries etc. from her own family tree for beginners to look at. When she got out a typed example of a will, I couldn't resist having a nosy at it, and it turned out to be the will of one of my partner's ancestors! Actually, it was a copy of the transcript I had done of it! Yes, the librarian giving the talk was a distant cousin of my partner's. We were already in touch by email, originally via this website, but neither of us had any idea we both lived in the same city, only about a mile apart as it turns out! She said she had loads and loads of wills, and it was just pure chance she picked that one out to show as an example. And I nearly didn't make it to the talk as I had to wait in for the gasman, but luckily he finished his work just in time for me to go. How's that for coincidence, eh? Kate.

This could be a tip, I suppose, since if you got as lucky as I did it would help with your research... see below in a minute. Kate.