Spooky experiences while researching

[Ninatoo]

As for genetic memory...I think it is actually called cellular memory now:

Well...without trying to sound like I am a skite....I am a reasonable singer, and have always loved to sing, since I was a little girl.  I have also shown some instrumental musical ability, as have my brothers and children, but my immediate family have always been nonplussed as to where this came from.  "I don't know where they get it from" has been my mother's lament!

Well I found my father's half brothers last year, and they tell me that musical talent has been a trait in our family since my great grandmother at least, who played the piano beautifully, but also the accordian.  Also my grandfather, and he played the harmonica as well.  And Aunty so and so had a wonderful singing voice....My newly found cousins on that side have a band that plays in Glasgow and are about to release a CD.

And my mum thought I was  a throwback?   

[Rebecca Steele]

I haven't really had any spooky experiences, only that my GGGrandmothers death certificate was sent out to me (date stamped on envelope) exactly 125 years after her death!

When I went up to Worcestershire for a weekend last year (where my family lived) I visited Powick churchyard to look for my GGGGGrandfathers grave. We didn't find it unfortunately, but when in the overgrown part there were some graves that I couldn't get to, and I felt an amazing pull towards them which I didn't have at any other point in the churchyard.

Actually, thinking about it, my mum used to live just up the road from Powick when she was 15, and she probably passed the church everyday on the bus when going to school, but never went in there!

My GGrandparents were married in the same village where my boyfriend grew up!

I think there are a few more but that will do for now .... actually there are more than I first thought!

[CarolBurns]

Amazing how many spring to mind once you start to think about them isn't it?

Carol

[Webby]

I'm still waiting for my Dad to "contact" me with the relevant information I need to sort out my family tree!!!!

Dad got me interested in the family in the first place - but unfortunately didn't stay long enough to get the full measure of the family!!

But ..... he promised most faithfully (if) he could he would let me know the answers to some of the questions that had been bugging us for some time.

I'm still waiting .... dear old dad has been gone for some 16 years!!!!!! 

Webby

[prozac]

Twas only a few weeks ago that I started tracing the family tree again after I had given up previously.  I sent a letter to my mothers counsin in America asking for any information she has on the family, as her father is the only surviving relative of the 'elder' generation in my family, on either sides. 

We found a folder that my nan had been filling in at her nursing home before she passed away in 1999.  The folder had questions about her family in, a section on memories etc.  In it, my nan wrote that her nan, Eva Nash, owned a Pet Shop in Oldbury.  My mom and I were stumped, as in the research we had done, we had found no mention of the surname Nash, and had found her nan to be Mary Jane Hardman.  I remember moaning to a friend over msn, saying this would be the perfect time for nan to return in spirit form! 

A few months after we sent our letter to America, the day after we found this folder (and felt like giving up), we recieved a reply from my second cousins in America.  She wrote in it all that she knew about the English side of the family.  Including that my nans parents were Mary Jane and George Nash... and Mary Janes mother was Elizabeth Hardman.

Not so spooky, but a big coincidence that we recieve both information in 2 days after finding nothing out previously! 

To add onto this (christ help me I'm writing an essay and i doubt anyone is even reading!), I sent in a wedding photo into The Black Country Bugle asking for the help of local people as to who the marriage belonged to.  We've been reading the bugle for years and never sent a letter in, and we've never found anyone looking for information that we were.  In the same issue that the wedding photo I sent in was printed, we found a letter from a local man asking about his great grandparents, George and Elizabeth (nee Hardman) Nash - from Oldbury!  I couldn't believe it.  Then my aunty, who we have not spoken to in quite a few years, phoned saying that she couldn't believe it when she saw my letter in the bugle and confirmed who was on the photo and said she has many photos and we're welcome to drop by opne day to see them!

My favourite part of tracing the family tree is when the pieces begin to fit together, all at once.

[Emjaybee]

Having found Smiths in the family tree I told my wife who reminded me her mother was a Smith, plus she came from the same area I am researching.

It was always said we looked alike when we were younger, same turned up nose, same face shape etc. Oh what a spooky feeling.

Sorry folks, my wife was adopted her name was Baker, and came from Bromsgrove far from where my Smiths were located.

Just as well I suppose.

Dont let this message devalue the other genuine co-incidences.

P.s. my wife's birth mother abandoned her at 6wks, we knew nothing of her or her family for 40yrs.We later found her brother, and that she worked alongside her birth mother and did not know, she went to the same school as her cousin, and my daughter was in the hospital where my wifes brother was a theatre porter, and he took her down for her op.

[JAP]

Dear Meldrew,

What a sad story - and so good of you to post it.

Though I guess that if all the people involved were in the same general area then coincidences (aka spooky experiences) could have been expected.

Let's hope that all the family members have met up and have come to terms with their various pasts.  And are joining together in genealogcial research.

Best regards,

JAP

[Rebecca Steele]

Oh Meldrew, how your wife must have felt when she found out!

All those 'close encounters'. Like JAP said I hope that all the family members have now met up and come to terms with the past.

[Emjaybee]

The tear jerker:-

We found the whole family for my wife and we are very close. However, soon after finding her brother my wife had a stroke. Her newly found brother was heard to say tearfully, "Just as I find a sister she may be taken away."

But fate stepped in and she made a 75% recovery and we are so glad to have her with us still.

Thank you all for your nice comments.

Anybody need a Smith?