That's a great story. I agree about the places too. It wasn't until I started doing my family history that I discovered my paternal Grandmother was born in the village I now live. Two generations of her family lived here and she was married in the local Church. I actually moved away for several years and then came back still not knowing that my Grandmother and Great Grandparents had lived here.
It could also be something to do with genes but I'm not going to go any further with this as I think I would be getting into deep water - far far too deep.
Bye for now - Linda
PS. I think you mentioned during your talk at the Family Day that you had ancestors in Bristol. Of all my direct ancestors going back hundreds of years only one didn't live within a 25 mile radius of where I live now and that was my maternal Grandfather - he came from Bristol! Did your Bristol ancestors know my Bristol ancestors??? Spooky.
Even as a sceptical scientist I find it hard to resist the idea that our ancestors somehow pull the strings to help us make discoveries about them.
I was on one of my regular visits to Kew with some other local ladies. including Carol Richmond (who we now know was at school with you!). At the time Carol was doing research for her "Banished!" books, I think, and was looking at "Hue and Cry" or some such newspaper. I was absorbed in my own research in the Map Room. Carol came rushing over to where I was sitting, to show me what she'd found: on one page she'd looked at, there happened to be a list of escaped convicts, and right at the end of the list, in the bottom right-hand corner of the page, was the name "William Carter". There must have been hundreds of criminals called William Carter, but this one had been transported on a ship called the Coromandel in 1838. The coincidence is that I happen to have a great-great-great-grandfather William Carter who was transported to Van Diemen's Land on the Coromandel in 1838.
I knew about his transportation, but had no idea about the escape. Perhaps William was getting fed up with waiting for me to find out, so made use of Carol instead!
Another thing I can't explain is how you can feel at home in a place you've never been to before, and then only later discover that you had ancestors who lived there. Just a coincidence? To quote Hamlet,
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
I'm sure that other family researchers have noticed how often things turn up during their research which sends a bit of a shiver down the spine.
The Oliver family has been in Oxfordshire for hundreds of years so I suppose it is not surprising that we bump into Oliver descendants or find that we have friends or acquaintances with names that we have seen associated with our ancestors, for example as witnesses at weddings or living near each other. It makes us say 'small world'
There are other things which I find quite spooky. I do research on both my own and my husbands family and have found the following examples:
I was recently helping a friend househunting in West Sussex. She had a particular area she wanted to move to and whilst we were travelling round some of the names of the villages sounded familiar to me. Later that week when I was working on my husbands family history I realised that the villages we had been looking round had once been the home of his Grandmother. This story doesn't end there because a few days after that 'coincidence' I had a major breakthrough with my own Grandfathers family. Originally from Bristol they too had moved to West Sussex not far from where we had been houshunting.
My Grandmother (born in Combe) worked 'in service' in Lambeth. My husbands Grandfather was born and lived in Lambeth. When I looked at the map he lived only a few streets away from where my Grandmother was working.
My husbands brother (born in Berkshire) moved to Eastbourne. The 1901 census shows his Great Aunt also lived in Eastbourne.
My husband was born in Berkshire but his family originated from Henley and London. Generations of both sides of my family have lived within a 20 mile radius of Oxford and my husband has always joked that he brought new blood into the family from outside the area. However, we have recently been told that his family orginated (back in the 1700's) from Enstone!!!
My last example relates to my little Great Niece - Selena. This is not a common name and she is not named after anyone - or is she? Some forces at work here perhaps! Maria (daughter of Mary Oliver - my Gt Gt Grandmother) is referred to on most documents as Maria S. You've probably guessed by now what I am going to say. I have recently discovered that the 'S' stands for Selena!
Hope you have enjoyed reading about these 'coincidences'. I would be interested to hear if anyone else has any to share.
