I've made a Match!!

Just made contact through LC with a cousin who is descended from my 4G GF, Cuthbert Twizell. She didn't even know my 3G GM existed, so we are filling each other in, and discovering what happened to other siblings in that family, which is opening up even more possibilities.....

 

That's phenomenal!

 

I did have something similar recently, when 2 referrals registered at about the same time - again, about 240 between them. There was slight anti-climax afterwards, as my match potential, which was straining at '2 higher than I'd achieved' dropped back to parity - I don't know if you notice the same thing.

 

Has this happened to anyone else? The two halves of my family have come together!

My ancestry runs approximately thus: my father's ancestors were concentrated in Northumberland, and my mother's in Norfolk and northern fringe of Suffolk. The two halves came together when my parents met in WWII, that great social mixing bowl.
Now, I have been adding descendants of my Northumberland 4G GF (see quote above) and just added the 1881 reference for the (future) husband of one of his GG GD's. When I clicked on 'search', I found that I had hits on him and his mother. But the surprising thing was that they were common relatives with someone I had contacted before - because of a link with my mother's Norfolk family. I have naturally sent a message to the other LC member to see what she can add, but at the moment I am somewhat stunned at finding what I thought were quite separate branches of the tree coming together.

 

One to encourage those who sort out the fiddly bits.

My relative William Symonds married Anna Simmons - all absolutely clear on transcription of church records at FreeReg, also on BMD records. In the 1881 census they had a brother-in-law Ralph Hood staying with them, and I couldn't see how he fitted in. Possibly a slightly more distant relative, described as such for conciseness. I didn't put him on my LC page.
Today I had another look at the FreeReg record for the marriage and saw that Anna had no details for her father, also that a Robert Hood was a witness. Looked like there was some link between her and Hoods. I pursued Ralph a bit further, found his christening - parents Robert and Phoebe Hood. Plot thickens. I found a christening for a sister (same church, same parents) with a middle name of Simmons. Oho!
Suspicions fully roused I looked for, and found, a marriage for Robert and Phoebe. She was transcribed in the index (and listed alphabetically) as Lemmons, but this looked promising. The transcription on FreeReg had her as Summons, and all was falling into place. Then I found a christening for Anna Summons, mother Phoebe, no father, 5 years before the marriage (and the right date for the one who married William Symonds). So, at a guess, Anna was pre-marital but known as Hood, married as Simmons (her legal name) , and rather than reveal mis-match of her surname and her father's, left that bit blank

Feeling very pleased with this, I went to my LC page, and entered Ralph Hood for the 1881 census, as related by marriage - and made a match!
The final twist, and I'm not sure if it's a climax or anticlimax, is that I was in contact with this LostCousin a while back over Ralph's sister Anna. We thought we had a match but I had her as maiden name Simmons, and the other LC member thought she had been Hood (presumably because of Ralph), so we decided it was mistaken identity. I have sent another message and am hoping to pick up the conversation.

I think there is a message there, that it is worth looking into relatives who appear in censuses, even (especially?) if you can't see how they fit into the family.

 

I won the lottery on Christmas Day [a ''scratchie'' from my husband brought $1,000], so does this mean I won't get any matches?!!
Only ever had a couple of matches quite some time ago and they were existing contacts. The only possible newbie never replied so I sort
of gave up after that.

 

Two of my matches are not blood lines - one was a mistake inadvertently caused by me clicking ''ancestor'' instead of ''employment'' in the early days of LC [since corrected]; the other is an adoption, although I have now emailed the contact to make data available to him if he's interested.
My win went on a new vacuum cleaner [exciting - NOT], and 3 days in the beautiful Clare Valley in South Australia [limited by 40+ degrees heat, but we did manage a few air-conditioned wineries].