When I was researching my great grandmother a few years ago (SMITH married to a DAKIN). Lots of information on her hubby the former postmaster & general store owner before they married not so much on her. I emailed the historical society, didn't hear back for a while, and got busy other leads. A few weeks later I heard from the town historian. Very apologetic. She had found my email in the "spam" folder when she looked for another expected letter. We set up a time the next day to talk, since she had a researcher coming in that afternoon to pick up stuff. Sounded good to me. The researcher came in to pick up pictures for a house history report for a client. She said she noticed the brother-in-law of the original home owner named DAKIN and she had some DAKINs just over the NY/CT border. Did the researcher know if this was the same family? DAKIN -- gee I've not had any question on the DAKINs in years and then 2 in one day. Would we like her to introduce us?! It turns out that we share our 4th great grandparents Timothy DAKIN and Lydia FISH who were Quakers just over the border in NY. We joined forces in our research. The next spring, I took a trip to CT, stayed with her. Her sister and father joined us and we did a research trip out each day visiting repositories all up and down the border. Erica Erica Dakin Voolich •Genealogist, PLCGS, check out my genealogy blogs http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com http://ursulawright.blogspot.com http://geneabloggers.com/introduce-erica-dakin-voolich/ •Secretary, Middlesex Chapter, Massachusetts Society of Genealogists •Mathematics Tutor (grades 4 - algebra2, geometry) •President Somerville Mathematics Fund Listen to my TEDxSomerville talk on the work of the Somerville Math Fund <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rayp2ujjLA> Support the Math Fund when you shop on Amazon, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/46-2840495 Support the Math Fund when you shop using Giving Assistant <https://givingassistant.org/np#somerville-mathematics-fund-inc>. Chapter, Winner of the 2011, New England Chapter of the Year Award Chapter, Winner of the 2003-2004 *Golden Tassel* Service Award We celebrate and encourage mathematics achievement in Somerville MA! http://www.somervillemathematicsfund.org Become a fan on our Facebook page: Facebook | Somerville Mathematics Fund Check out my blog: http://somervillemathematics.blogspot.com/ On Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 11:00 PM, Jan Murphy <packrat74@gmail.com> wrote: > There's also the series of "Serendipity in Genealogy" posts on The Ancestry > Insider blog. Fun stuff. > > http://www.ancestryinsider.org/search/label/serendipity > > Jan Murphy > packrat74@gmail.com > > > On Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 8:25 AM, ccr <ggfdcdf@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Thanks for all the book suggestions! There were so many, I created a > > new WorldCat list to jot the titles down for safe-keeping. > > > > I also searched for "serendipity" and browsed through dissertation > > titles. It's interesting to imagine how it might apply in other > > fields. > > > > Cyndy > > > > Cynthia Richardson > > Orange County, CA > > > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > > TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word > > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the > message > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

My best serendipity story: A cousin of mine went to the historical society to do some research on a building that had been in our family for years, but was sold decades ago. Found little in the records, but as she signed the visitor's log, noticed that the person who had signed just above her had given her address as the very building we were interested in! She copied down her contact information, got in touch, and we got an awesome tour of the building that my great-grandparents, 2x great-grandparents, and 3x great-grandparents had lived in. And this was in NYC, not some little town historical society, so the odds of coming across that address are something like astronomical! Kathleen