Curious coincidence

[Nell]

As you probably all know, I have a gt x 3 uncle on my mother's side, called William Mealing, who killed his fiancee in 1862. He was found innocent on the grounds of insanity and spent the rest of his life in Broadmoor.

On my father's side I also have a gt x 3 uncle who was tried for murder, in 1876. But he was hanged. A sordid crime, he was drunk and killed a 15-year-old prostitute because he had venereal disease.

Both men killed their victims with cut throat razors.

I've only just realised they are both related to me in the same degree.

[Olde Crone]

*shuts the sharp knife drawer*

My curious coincidence is two brothers kicked to death by a horse, 20 years apart. Even more curious is that no one in my living family thought it worth mentioning.

OC

[Nell]

Horse injuries were more common when they were the usual form of transport. My Dad had an uncle and my ex's mum had an uncle who were both kicked by horses. Dad's uncle developed fits of rage and the ex's mum's uncle went deaf. My grandfather also had an older sister who was knocked down by a runaway horse and died.

But your coincidence is quite strange. I presume it was a different horse?

[Mary from Italy]

My unmarried paternal great-aunt was admitted to a lunatic asylum in Australia when she was 24, and lived there for the rest of her life, dying at the age of 63.

My unmarried maternal great-aunt was admitted to a lunatic asylum in England when she was 32, and lived there for the rest of her life, dying at the age of 63.

[Nell]

Very curious, Mary!

[Nell]

Just found another coincidence, though not as odd as the others:

My maternal grandfather Angus Williams lived for a time in 5 Coast Guard Cottages, Hythe, Kent. He and my grandmother lived there briefly after their marriage.

Just searching the 1939 register for Angus's sister Caroline and found her living at
5 Coast Guard Cottages, Cromer in Norfolk.

[Phoenix]

My parents met because her aunt was the sister in law of his father's cousin.
Fair enough, but...

A century earlier, Mum's paternal ancestors lived in the same road as Dad's maternal ancestors, in a different county entirely.

I will never know whether that earlier coincidence was just that, or if that is the reason my great aunt met one of my grandfather's cousins

[Durham Lady]

Originally Posted by Nell

Just found another coincidence, though not as odd as the others:

My maternal grandfather Angus Williams lived for a time in 5 Coast Guard Cottages, Hythe, Kent. He and my grandmother lived there briefly after their marriage.

Just searching the 1939 register for Angus's sister Caroline and found her living at
5 Coast Guard Cottages, Cromer in Norfolk.

When our eldest daughter and husband were looking for a house to buy they were let down on two occasions (gazumped) and the 3rd house they bought turned out to be the house my great, her 2x great granny had lived in for several years before she died, my mum remembered visiting the house as a child.

My elderly cousin and late husband were allocated a Durham Miners Association cottage when they needed a home on one level. When she told me the address it 'rang a bell' It was the cottage out paternal grandparents had lived in on their retirement until death. They had died in 1937 and 43 so we had never known them and only knew the address because I had their death certificates.

[Nell]

I have found various rellies on my side and ex's living within a street or two of eachother in London. I sometimes like to wonder if they ever knew eachother.