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One of my hobbies is genealogy or family history research. Hours spent online or in the local history archives searching through microfilms for clues for births, marriages and burials.

Whilst trying to find the location of my x4 great grandmother's grave I spent a good few hours on multiple visits trawling through the many many pages of burials on the microfilm machine to find out which burial ground she may be in. It means scrolling through metres of film to manually find the correct year over a number of different films. Sometimes you have to fast forward the machine at a rapid rate to scroll through the years stopping occasionally to check where you are.

On this occasion I was fast forwarding the machine through to get somewhere near the year of her burial so that I could fine tune it and see if she was listed. When I stopped not only was I at the correct year and month for her burial her name was the top one on the list. The co-incidence and chance of that happening hardly seems real.

She wanted you to find her!

Not a co-incidence but no less weird and related.

This morning I was searching for someone in the burial records. Whilst sat at the computer searching I got a brief whiff of cigarette smoke. I'm on my own today and no-body here smokes anyway, windows and doors are all closed. Thought nothing more of it.

Found the person I was looking for.. 1950 - Cause of death: Lung Cancer... go figure!
 
Not a co-incidence but no less weird and related.

This morning I was searching for someone in the burial records. Whilst sat at the computer searching I got a brief whiff of cigarette smoke. I'm on my own today and no-body here smokes anyway, windows and doors are all closed. Thought nothing more of it.

Found the person I was looking for.. 1950 - Cause of death: Lung Cancer... go figure!

Now that IS weird! D'you picture your late relation leaning over your shoulder, Park Drive in hand, scrutinising the list?
 
Now that IS weird! D'you picture your late relation leaning over your shoulder, Park Drive in hand, scrutinising the list?

Yes haha. I had to say out loud. "It's ok John i've found you now". His daughter died recently, a second cousin of mine, he may have hung around for that.

Reminds me of a post on a genealogy forum I'm on a few years back. A lady went to see a medium as a total sceptic. the medium told her there were LOTS of people around her which she didn't believe. Then she said they wanted to know WHY she was looking for them. She says she hadn't told the medium anything about her hobby.
 
In recent months I seem to have had more and more coincidences occurring. My girlfriend and I seem to report them to eachother on a near daily basis now. They are mostly in the realm of "hearing a new fact or word and then seeing that everywhere", but I find even that rather a fascinating thing.

Few examples:
The singer from The Cranberries dies the day after my girlfriend and I talked about her band's big song and looked into what she is up to now. We are not fans and have never spared a thought for her before.

On New Years' Day I found a pack of cards on the living room table. I decided I'd cut the cards and see if i got the ace of spades. Amazingly I did. I shuffled and tried again. It worked again. The third time it did not. Still, I was rather shocked it worked twice in a row.

I bought a belt from a second hand shop that had a faded image on the buckle, but didn't pay too much attention. A week later I was sent some artwork I had commissioned and the first draft struck me as familiar. Later that day I had a thought and looked at my belt buckle, the image was VERY similar (a pair of cowboy boots). The commission was for a music project and had no input from me at all.

I came up with a detailed idea for a musical theatre show. I am not involved in that world, in fact I find it funny and my idea was somewhat mocking. However I told it to my friend and we expanded on it finding it very funny. 2 weeks later we saw a bus advert for a brand new musical with a very similar theme. On looking into it the basic theme is very similar.

Reading an article where a celebrity says she loves Borders' Biscuits, "an British classic." As a fan of biscuits I was surprised as I did not know these and had not eaten them before. 10 minutes later at my girlfriend's Nan's house she offers us a biscuit and whips out a packet of Borders.

Booked a van and driver for a job. Looked him up on Facebook to check he didn't look dodgy. That evening I went for a drink and he walked past me at the bus stop.

I like listening to audiobooks. Two that I listened to in a row had a character named Tuppence, but were by different authors.

Saw the word 'flaneur' used then explained twice in one day.

So, nothing hugely strange in any of them, but just enough to catch my attention and feel like a mounting of small coincidences.
Interesting stuff. Just wondering if you have any thoughts as to why these types of events are occuring?
 
In recent months I seem to have had more and more coincidences occurring. My girlfriend and I seem to report them to eachother on a near daily basis now. They are mostly in the realm of "hearing a new fact or word and then seeing that everywhere", but I find even that rather a fascinating thing.

Few examples:
The singer from The Cranberries dies the day after my girlfriend and I talked about her band's big song and looked into what she is up to now. We are not fans and have never spared a thought for her before.

On New Years' Day I found a pack of cards on the living room table. I decided I'd cut the cards and see if i got the ace of spades. Amazingly I did. I shuffled and tried again. It worked again. The third time it did not. Still, I was rather shocked it worked twice in a row.

I bought a belt from a second hand shop that had a faded image on the buckle, but didn't pay too much attention. A week later I was sent some artwork I had commissioned and the first draft struck me as familiar. Later that day I had a thought and looked at my belt buckle, the image was VERY similar (a pair of cowboy boots). The commission was for a music project and had no input from me at all.

I came up with a detailed idea for a musical theatre show. I am not involved in that world, in fact I find it funny and my idea was somewhat mocking. However I told it to my friend and we expanded on it finding it very funny. 2 weeks later we saw a bus advert for a brand new musical with a very similar theme. On looking into it the basic theme is very similar.

Reading an article where a celebrity says she loves Borders' Biscuits, "an British classic." As a fan of biscuits I was surprised as I did not know these and had not eaten them before. 10 minutes later at my girlfriend's Nan's house she offers us a biscuit and whips out a packet of Borders.

Booked a van and driver for a job. Looked him up on Facebook to check he didn't look dodgy. That evening I went for a drink and he walked past me at the bus stop.

I like listening to audiobooks. Two that I listened to in a row had a character named Tuppence, but were by different authors.

Saw the word 'flaneur' used then explained twice in one day.

So, nothing hugely strange in any of them, but just enough to catch my attention and feel like a mounting of small coincidences.
A very impressive collection. It seems to me that you were in a phase where your sensitivity, for want of a better word, was operating at maximum, and you were in contact with a higher level of reality. Are you sensitive to other kinds of phenomena?
 
My library uses a patron’s last name plus the first three letters of their first name to label items on hold. For example something belonging to a Mary Johnson would be Johnson Mar. There is another person with my last name and similar first name who uses the library. Their stuff is always getting mixed in with mine. One time I was at the library to check out a CD and I noticed the lady at the counter next to me was holding the CD I had on hold, but I just thought she had another copy (it was a new release). The Librarian told me that my CD was ready but she could not find it anywhere. The lady next to me who was talking to another librarian, was visibly frustrated about something. She waved the CD around and said something like “this isn’t even mine! It belongs to the other [lastname] Che!” I leaned over and said “I think you have my CD”. My name is Chelsea and hers was Cherie but still what are the odds I’m going to be in the library the same time as her?
 
The odds would be against it, for sure. But what I find puzzling is why the library uses a system to label items which is clearly going to fail every so often, especially if the surname is a common one.
 
More coincidences from my life:
  • When I got my last oil change my ticket number was my mom’s birthday (month, day, year).
  • My mom met up with two old friends and it turned out they all had baby boys named Tyler in the spring of ‘92.
  • About a year ago my mom and I both had dreams about buying new houses while still keeping our old one. The major difference was I hated my dream but she loved hers and was mad at my dad for waking her up.
  • Several years ago my dad was walking into the bathroom at his work when a guy walked out wearing the exact same sweater. The sweater was several years old which made it even weirder.
  • One time I got two quarters as change that were dated 1979 and 1984. Those were the years my cousins who are siblings were born.
  • When I was in high school I traveled to another state with my mom, my aunt, and my cousin. We ran into some kids at our hotel who went to my cousin’s school.
  • It seems like wherever I go in life (school or work)there is always someone named Shelby and we’re always having our names confused (my name is Chelsea). To make matters worse the Shelby at my work has the same birthday (different year).
The odds would be against it, for sure. But what I find puzzling is why the library uses a system to label items which is clearly going to fail every so often, especially if the surname is a common one.
I’m pretty sure our library card number/bar code is also on there (sorry, I haven’t been to the library in a while). It’s just the name is the easiest thing to see.
 
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Had a couple of coincidences today.

Recently I was discussing a certain train route with a colleague. As it goes to Birmingham and takes in several stations en route I jokingly called it the Brummie Stopper.

Today I looked at the text again and thought 'Stopper? Sounds like a bung or cork, not a train!'
A little later in a crossword a clue was something like 'bung or cork' with the answer as 'stopper'.

An hour after that I started thinking about a vulgar old saying - 'We all shit out of the same hole!'- which means nobody's inherently better than anyone else.

Dunno why it came into my head, but I was reminded of a Breughel painting called 'Flemish Proverbs' which features an illustration (it is believed) of that saying.

Soon afterwards I came upon a small exhibition of record sleeves which included that very painting. What the actual!
 
Had a couple of coincidences today.

Recently I was discussing a certain train route with a colleague. As it goes to Birmingham and takes in several stations en route I jokingly called it the Brummie Stopper.

Today I looked at the text again and thought 'Stopper? Sounds like a bung or cork, not a train!'
A little later in a crossword a clue was something like 'bung or cork' with the answer as 'stopper'.

An hour after that I started thinking about a vulgar old saying - 'We all shit out of the same hole!'- which means nobody's inherently better than anyone else.

Dunno why it came into my head, but I was reminded of a Breughel painting called 'Flemish Proverbs' which features an illustration (it is believed) of that saying.

Soon afterwards I came upon a small exhibition of record sleeves which included that very painting. What the actual!
The Matrix. You're in the Matrix.
 
I remember waking up one morning and singing Windmills of your Mind in the shower. VERY random, not a favourite or anything like that. Said as much to my sister who I live with.

On the tube into work reading the Metro and saw that Noel Harrison had died....
 
Because of the NBN coming soon to turn off the adsl system I was told to contact my internet supplier on Monday so thought I would after the probus meeting.
I has just pulled up in the driveway when my daughter came out with the home phone saying they were on the line about a different matter, so thought that was a coincidence.
 
I work in a building with 400 people in it. I see about 50 of them most weeks. In eight months I've only ever seen two fellow employees outside of work. I've seen them both twice, in different towns, 20 miles apart.

Which is odd.
 
Around forty years ago, I had some funny coincidences involving the radio in my car. One day when I had nothing else going on, I decided to drive across the Indian reservation not terribly far from my home. I had never been on the actual rez, though I knew some folks who lived there. Just about the time I got as close to the center of the reservation as I was going to get, that song by Paul Revere and the Raiders, "Indian Reservation" came on the radio. It was several years old at the time, and not something often heard on the radio. Every time I hear it now, I think of that trip.

On that same trip, I think, or one around the same time and not far from the rez, I drove along on a "blacktop" county road, listening to the radio. Up ahead there appeared to be something in the road. As I got closer, I saw it was the jagged kind of "speed bump" that forms when asphalt pavement buckles. It was a very hot day, so though unusual, it was something I'd seen before. I slowed down and carefully eased the car across. Just as the rear tires rolled down off the hump, the record I was hearing, spinning on a turntable in a radio station fifteen miles away, skipped! The timing was impeccable. It took a second for me to realize what had happened.

One other time, in that same car, I was on my way back from an overnight trip several hours from home. I got to a place I knew was just about an hour from my place, so I thought if I knew what time it was, I'd know when I would arrive at home. I did not wear a watch then, and the car had no clock, so I turned on the radio. A familiar voice came on, saying "It's one fifteen." I said thanks, and switched the radio off. Again, the timing could not have been better.
 
I wonder whether the subsequent owner of the car (presume you no longer have it) had the same experiences with this haunted radio. Incidentally, being an US car nut myself, what car was it?
 
I was reading M. R. James' A Warning to the Curious last night and in it there is a reference to a family called Ager. This morning I had a look at a website, Collative Learning to read a series of articles about Stanley Kubrick's film of The Shining http://www.collativelearning.com/the shining.html
And to my surprise, the author of the site is Rob Ager. So in the space of a few hours, the same unusual surname pops up twice and in both occasions in connection with a tale of the supernatural.
 
I was reading M. R. James' A Warning to the Curious last night and in it there is a reference to a family called Ager. This morning I had a look at a website, Collative Learning to read a series of articles about Stanley Kubrick's film of The Shining http://www.collativelearning.com/the shining.html
And to my surprise, the author of the site is Rob Ager. So in the space of a few hours, the same unusual surname pops up twice and in both occasions in connection with a tale of the supernatural.


‘Nathaniel Ager is my name and England is my nation,
Seaburgh is my dwelling-place and Christ is my Salvation,
When I am dead and in my Grave, and all my bones are rotten,
I hope the Lord will think on me when I am quite forgotten.’

The 1972 BBC adaptation with Pater Vaughan was pretty good - in full on Youtube.

“No Digging, No Digging” lol
 
I wonder whether the subsequent owner of the car (presume you no longer have it) had the same experiences with this haunted radio. Incidentally, being an US car nut myself, what car was it?

Hmmm. Well, now that I think about it, the guy who bought the car would maybe think it was pretty cool if that kept happening, or maybe he would think it was normal. He was a bit of an oddball. He insisted I leave the in-dash cassette stereo in the car. Made it a condition of the sale even though I wanted to keep it. At the time, it was pretty high zoot stuff, especially for a 1974 El Camino. I was a car nut then, and that was not my favorite ride but it was reliable and a good way to haul parts for the less useful project cars I owned.
 
Hmmm. Well, now that I think about it, the guy who bought the car would maybe think it was pretty cool if that kept happening, or maybe he would think it was normal. He was a bit of an oddball. He insisted I leave the in-dash cassette stereo in the car. Made it a condition of the sale even though I wanted to keep it. At the time, it was pretty high zoot stuff, especially for a 1974 El Camino. I was a car nut then, and that was not my favorite ride but it was reliable and a good way to haul parts for the less useful project cars I owned.
Love the El Caminos !
 
I was reading M. R. James' A Warning to the Curious last night and in it there is a reference to a family called Ager. This morning I had a look at a website, Collative Learning to read a series of articles about Stanley Kubrick's film of The Shining http://www.collativelearning.com/the shining.html
And to my surprise, the author of the site is Rob Ager. So in the space of a few hours, the same unusual surname pops up twice and in both occasions in connection with a tale of the supernatural.
That's weird - I worked with a P. Ager in the 70's and only yesterday I was trawling the interweb to see if there was any mention of him.
 
Strange thing happened today. I was walking along and mulling over a job I might apply for, thinking about stuff to update my cv with and possible interview questions and how to project myself. There was an oldish guy stood on my left and as I was going passed him he suddenly said; 'confidence!', very clearly. I faltered slightly in my step and glanced at the guy. He was looking at me but we didn't make eye contact, I saw him turn in my direction as I carried on past him and heard him say quietly, 'yes that's all you need, confidence', but the way he said it, in a slightly bemused way, it was as if he himself wasn't sure why he was saying it. I could swear he had read my mind!
 
Ooh, I thought I had posted this here, but it looks like I haven't yet.

This would have been in 2005. Being a book cover design nerd, I was reading Phil Baines' book Penguin by Design. It had a section about J D Salinger's Franny and Zooey, and I really wanted a copy of the super-minimalist late 1970s edition.

The following week, I was visiting relatives in another city, and I got a really strong urge to go into a charity shop near their house. I felt convinced the book would be there. (You already know how this ends!) I walked in, walked straight up to a shelf, and it was right there.

There was no way I could have seen it in passing, as I hadn't been anywhere near that shop for a year or so before. Not a very exciting one but a nice sort-of-premonition / coincidence!

IMG_20181114_004615.jpg
 
There must be a book fairy. Last year I wanted a copy of Antonia Fraser’s biography of Mary, Queen of Scots, specifically the hardback edition with a purple dust jacket. Coming back from a meeting I suddenly knew if I went into the Oxfam Bookshop in Strutton Ground there would be one in there, and, of course, there it was.
 
Okay, well, this would probably freak some people the hell out, but I took it as a sign from the gods that I'm on the right track:
Some of you will probably know that, as well as being a meter reader in my day job, I'm an author. I write historical fiction, generally of the action adventure type, but my current work-in-progress is about a young girl taken from her home in Germania to be a slave for a Roman tribune in Britannia. She, and the novel, are called Lucia. Not exactly a common name in the Glasgow area....
Anyway, I went into Morrisons in Erskine for some shopping yesterday, came back out and spotted something on the ground right beside my car door. It was a bracelet type thing with a name engraved on it - I'm sure you can guess what the name was.
20181116_133700.jpg


To add to the tale, I've not worked in Erskine very often, it was never part of my "patch" until recently. The last time I was here 6 months ago the idea for Lucia came to me in a flash of inspiration, something that has never happened to me before. It honestly felt like the idea was dropped fully formed into my head from somewhere else and the book is really not like my other ones at all.
I wrote a little blog post about the find here if anyone is interested although it mostly just says the same as this post.
 
Sorry, I tried to just post just the small thumbnail but it seems to have posted that AND the big one.
 
Okay, well, this would probably freak some people the hell out, but I took it as a sign from the gods that I'm on the right track:
Some of you will probably know that, as well as being a meter reader in my day job, I'm an author. I write historical fiction, generally of the action adventure type, but my current work-in-progress is about a young girl taken from her home in Germania to be a slave for a Roman tribune in Britannia. She, and the novel, are called Lucia. Not exactly a common name in the Glasgow area....
Anyway, I went into Morrisons in Erskine for some shopping yesterday, came back out and spotted something on the ground right beside my car door. It was a bracelet type thing with a name engraved on it - I'm sure you can guess what the name was.
View attachment 13094

To add to the tale, I've not worked in Erskine very often, it was never part of my "patch" until recently. The last time I was here 6 months ago the idea for Lucia came to me in a flash of inspiration, something that has never happened to me before. It honestly felt like the idea was dropped fully formed into my head from somewhere else and the book is really not like my other ones at all.
I wrote a little blog post about the find here if anyone is interested although it mostly just says the same as this post.

You may enjoy this from The Daily Grail, about authors who have come across their characters in real life -
https://www.dailygrail.com/2015/04/...fictional-characters-turning-up-in-real-life/
It's not mentioned in the article but Diana Wynne Jones had said this kind of thing happened to her all the time, too

You may think I'm full of woo (which no doubt I am) but I think these things can manifest on multiple levels and in different ways, if the stars (or whatever it is) are right.
 
Referenced also in the responses to your dailygrail.com citation, you may be familiar with this Sufism quote already @Ulalume

OneLittleAngel said:
Not only do beings and things have spirits that in turn take the forms of beings and things, but deeds, words, thoughts, and feelings also have spirits of their own. Thus it may happen that the soul of a beautiful deed may assume the form of an angel.
 
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