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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: guest189040 on Thursday 03 December 20 23:26 GMT (UK)

Title: What a small world.
Post by: guest189040 on Thursday 03 December 20 23:26 GMT (UK)
My Wife has had one particular Facebook friend for years.

Tonight the subject of family trees came up and my Mrs asked her about her family roots and she recognised one of the surnames that was mentioned as being the same as one of mine.

After a couple of messages back and forth we share the same 3xGGP’s so I think that that makes us 4th Cousins 1 Removed.

It gets better she goes on to say that one of her Mother’s Cousins was Graham who just happened to be a close friend of my Brother’s for over sixty years and we never knew that Graham was in fact a 4th Cousin of ours.
Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: kiwihalfpint on Friday 04 December 20 04:42 GMT (UK)
Many years ago, Mr KHP and I were out of town, and as you do, while you are waiting for something in line, you strike up a conversation with the person next to you.   Mentioned his name, even with the Irish accent, didn't think anything of it at the time, perhaps the wheels in my brain were working a little bit on the way home. 

Later that night, went into the Irish tree, and there he was, I wasn't expecting him to be in NZ.  My 2nd cousin, 2x removed. :)  So with the help of Google, I was able to put a few more leaves on the twig.

Cheers
KHP

Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: pinefamily on Friday 04 December 20 06:25 GMT (UK)
When I informed my in-laws that they were 4th cousins once removed they told me to stop looking.  ::)
Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: bodger on Friday 04 December 20 06:30 GMT (UK)
Mid 1970s Ireland met a Michael Ringrose from USA interested in a joint venture, fast forward 2000 i retired and started my genealogy , yes after a couple of months discovered that we are second cousins
Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: Greensleeves on Friday 04 December 20 20:38 GMT (UK)
Before my late husband and I married he took me round to meet some of his close friends.   During the course of conversation the wife mentioned that her maiden name was Pearle and my ears pricked up.  I asked where she came from.  "Oh just a tiny Suffolk village no-one has ever heard of called Brettenham" she replied.  That was my grandmother's maiden name, said I, and my mother was born in Brettenham.  It turned out that she and I were second cousins and that she was the 'big girl' I remember from when I was small, who we used to visit, when  she and her sister would let me play with costumes from their dressing-up box.
Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: coombs on Saturday 05 December 20 19:01 GMT (UK)
I helped a Berkshire born (Lived in Norfolk for decades) lifelong family friend do her genealogy. I went to school with her children. I started and found her great gran came from Leigh On Sea, Essex. That is where my dad's great grandparents came from. Further back I found dad's great gran and the friends great gran were third cousins. So I went to school with distant cousins.

Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: kiwihalfpint on Saturday 05 December 20 22:17 GMT (UK)
I grew up and went to school with my courtesy aunts next door neighbours boys, I remember as a kid, we were asked if we were related to the mother, as her maiden name was the same as ours.  Fast forward a few years, and two names kept jumping out at me, on my paternal tree, and kept drawing me back like a magnet, another few years later, in the death notices, the dots joined up, we were related.  One of them became an All Black.


Cheers
KHP
Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: pinefamily on Saturday 05 December 20 23:11 GMT (UK)
Similarly I discovered that one family of boys I went to school with were 2nd cousins once removed.
Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: Rena on Sunday 06 December 20 01:19 GMT (UK)
names kept jumping out at me, on my paternal tree, and kept drawing me back like a magnet,
Cheers
KHP

I know what you mean about magnets.  The first time it happened was a couple of decades ago when I first started my tree.  I came across a post on a website asking for information on quite a different surname from any in my family.  Our paths should never have crossed because that website concentrated on specifics and his surname interest was under "B" and mine was under "F"   Rootschatters found a new piece of information for me and there was this chap's "B" surname interest living under the same roof as one of my newly found "E" interests. 

I contacted him and we exchanged email addies.  When I received his email I got a surprise, as his own (different) "D" surname was known to me as being the same as a girl in my year at school, who turned out ro be his older sister!   I emailed back and said I have a feeling I should stick to you like glue -= do you have any family stories that we could exchange?   We had a connection with music and then another census link came online, which showed my gt. grandfather "F"  appeared as a cousin in the same household as his gt. gt. grandmother surname "E".  No wonder I was drawn to him "like a magnet" - we were family !

During that period I noticed another am researcher looking for another surname but his own name caught my eye as his "B" surname and location was the same as my contact. 
"Do you know this man with the same "B" surname that you're researching?" I asked.  He emailed back and sounded quite incredulous saying years ago he and his group of pals used to frequent the same watering holes as the other researcher and his group of pals - they'd exchanged plenty of laughs, but they'd only known each other by their given names and not their surnames.
Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: barryd on Sunday 06 December 20 01:51 GMT (UK)
And how about Happisburgh. If you cannot pronounce it you are escorted out of town. Except for Americans who are fined $500.00. Its a hard life.   
Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: mumjo on Sunday 06 December 20 16:17 GMT (UK)
Years ago a lad where i worked died in his early twenties, It wasn’t until I visited my mother that i found out he was a second cousin. He was also a close friend of my husband, who was apprenticed with him.
Title: Re: What a small world.
Post by: gazania on Sunday 06 December 20 20:06 GMT (UK)
I have a story different from the topic.  We have a great uncle who made a name for himself and appears in some history books,   One. day, a local TV station announced a program where they were taking a relative of his, for trip down memory lane to places around the world where he had lived etc. 

We were very curious but we did not recognise this relative although he had the same very common surname.  My brother tracked the person down.  The funny thing was the more my brother explained our relationship etc, the more he seemed to be the one who was not a relative.

Any way the outcome was that the person had done his family research, but believed his family story that they were related.  A lot of disappointment but contact remained cordial.  The TV station dropped the idea for the program via their own research. A pity, I think my brother would have liked the trip.