Sometimes when conducting family history research, we can come across amazing coincidences, finding that we’re tied to others in ways we never would have expected. This happened to me and one particular colleague and friend.
We realized years ago that the two of us (her from Pennsylvania and me originally from New York) had a bit of shared pirate ancestry stemming from Ireland. No biggie. There are plenty of Irish immigrant families in the U.S. descended from the same groups.
What was more interesting was what I found when helping her look into cemetery records recently.
She wasn’t just distantly-related to me. Her family also had ties to my husband’s ancestors. That’s not to say she and my husband are related. But when we found some of her ancestors’ cemetery records, I discovered that they were buried with several of my husband’s direct ancestors.
Of all the cemeteries in all the world, right?
I really is amazing how small of a world we live in!
Who might you have unexpected ties to? Have you run into any “small world” situations in your own genealogical research? If so, share your story with me in the comments.
