I should be so lucky...

[Shona]

From the Manchester Evening News:

An Australian tourist who visited Ashton-under-Lyne's central library to trace his ancestors didn't have to look very far to find a relative. David Ward asked archivist Anne Turner for help - and discovered she is his second cousin. Anne, 56, used to babysit David, 51, when she was a teenager, but she hadn't seen him for more than 20 years. She said: 'I thought his face seemed familiar.'

[WendyPusey]

You never know when you are going to meet a relative. We'd been going to our optician for years and it wasn't until one day we were chatting and I mentioned my family history research that he mentioned his wife was doing her tree too.

After asking names of Islanders she was related to we found out that she's my 1st cousin. It is certainly a small world.

[Merry]

lol!!

In about 2004 I was allowed to borrow the Genealogical Book which was the life's work of my first cousin three times removed, Frederick Charles Hunt (1868-1961). FCH lived his life in Bristol and I live in east Dorset, so imagine my surprise when a few sheets of more recent information fell out of the book's pages, one of which was written in the unmistakable hand of my first boss from work who had passed away a couple of years before. The paper was of his basic tree going back about 150 years. I'm sad to say after several years of wondering and investigating, we still don't know how or why this piece of paper came to be in my cousin's book. The widow of my boss had no idea. The only obvious link is that my boss was born in the village my cousin's grandson (current owner of the book) now lives in, in Somerset.

Every now and again I look at my copy of the bit of paper and wonder what I would have learned had I found it whilst my old boss was still alive.

[Phoenix]

Geoff Swinfield tells the tale of walking into a record office and saying "My name's Swinfield, I've come to research my family history"

A voice behind him said "My name's Swinfield: come to lunch m'boy"

[Chris in Sussex]

Only yesterday the OH was chatting with collegues about strange and little used names and he mentioned one of mine and how a pub was named after him, the Zach Willsher in Thundersley Essex. Turns out that one of his collegue's ancestors, and family to the present, also come from Thundersley and were members of the 'Peculiar People' as was Zach and most of my line!
Looking forward to seeing if we have had a family connection at some point.

Another collegue mentioned that he had a family bible with entries for his family back to 1690.....Green with envy doesn't come near it :D

Chris

[Margaret in Burton]

My OH visited Leicester Record Office quite a few years ago as he was in the area for work ( he did ask permission from his boss as he had finished for the day). In there he asked for the parish registers for Exton in Rutland. The archivist said that another gentleman had them and as there was a spare seat next to him perhaps he would share. OH asked and the man agreed. The man then asked what name he was looking for and OH said 'Newey', my mothers family. The man was shocked and said ' that's my name' . Turns out that it was my second cousin, never met him, still haven't. We exchange Christmas cards etc and he still can't believe how he and OH met.

[Phoenix]

Marg, I had a virtually identical experience in the West Country Studies Library in Exeter. The Record Office next door had closed and I was killing time before catching my train home to Croydon.

The box I wanted was in use, but nobody looking at it. I found a pedigree that took one branch of my family back into the realms of fantasy. When the people who had called up the box returned we discovered we were distant cousins.

I grew up with a story of "money lost in Chancery" which I had grave doubts about. I tentatively broached the question.

"Oh yes," they said, "we won it."

The only reason I met them was a misreading of the train timetable. Had I got my train times right, we would have been in the same building and never met.

Given the number of times I have visited Record Offices, I sometimes wonder how many cousins I have seen unawares.