Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Coincidence Lorries

I was on the way back home from uni, in the car with my mum, when we saw a hideous yellow car drive past us. My mum commented saying it "looked like a "Pirelli lorry". I'd never seen a Pirelli lorry in my life and I'm now 20 years old. I laughed along with her, not really knowing what she was on about, thinking what an odd thing to say but I didn't question why she'd said that (whether it was colour or shape or anything else that she made the comment in relation to). As we came off a roundabout a Pirelli lorry drove straight past us. As I told my mother about how odd it was and how I'd never seen one before in my life, a second lorry passed by. Very strange!

Odd chance encounters in early 1970s

When my husband and I lived in the USA - New Haven Connecticut - we made one visit to Boston - probably in 1971. While walking along a street we met the director of Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, where I used to live. On our return to England in 1973, I visited the Tate Gallery - have not been there since, except to Tate Modern - and ran into neighbours from the street we had lived on in New Haven. About 1975, we went to a party at the home of a work colleague. Chatting to someone, we discovered we were both born in Kendal and had lived on the same road. Then we realised we had played together as children, but did not recognise each other as grown-ups. Also she had changed her first name and I had married and changed my second name. On holiday in Crete about 1974, people we knew in London were boarding the plane we had just got off. On the same holiday, as we got off a boat, we met a couple I had been good friends with at Cambridge.

Spiegelhalter link

In February this year, I was searching the internet for information on Spiegelhalter watches as we had one owned by our ancestors in Whitby made by Hugo Anton Spiegelhalter. I eventually made contact with your father Eddie, who made me aware of yourself and your interest in coincidences. I had passed onto him photos of the watch we have.

Working for the same Company

In 1965 I had applied under the IAESTE scheme to do work experience related to my Metallurgy degree at Liverpool University in SKF's plant in central Sweden. When I arrived, I was told that there was another Metallurgy undergrad from Newcastle University who had started in the plant the previous week. We met up and became friends over the 3 months we worked there. In September 1966, having graduated, I started work at International Nickel's (INCO) Research Laboratory in Birmingham. Whilst I was being shown around the facility on my first day, I was shown into the High Temperature Materials Department and immediately bumped into the same person with whom I had worked in Sweden, the previous year! Again he had started at INCO the previous week! We continued our friendship until finally we were both made redundant on the same day in 1972!

Chance meeting 6700 km away

I live with my current wife in Mexico City, and my ex-wife lives with her new husband here also. My current wife ran into my ex-wife's current husband in an elevator in Santiago, Chile, 6700 km away. They were on business, not vacation, and work in very dissimilar jobs. Besides the awkwardness, I tried to calculate the chances. Of course the chances of these two specific humans would meet in this specific place in the world at this specific time and date are astronomically small, but it is irrelevant because it would apply to any meeting of any two persons in the world. But for my spouse to meet her spouse abroad in our lifetimes: Assuming they would work 25 years after our separation but we would live another 40, that they travel abroad 10 days a year in 2 6.7-day work weeks), to 2 of 20 different destinations. Santiago has 48 business class (4 to 5 star) hotels. I assume they worked at least 8 hours a day (no chance of meeting), and slept another 8 (my ex and I assume that this time is also a "no chance" ;-), and I assume that the rest of the day (8 hours at the most, and I assume they were the same 8 hours of the day) they moved about.

Mrs

I am the eldest of six children. I was born 13th May and when I was 6 years old I got a baby brother for my birthday. Here are the list of birthdays in my family. Father born 21st Feb Sister born 22nd Feb Me born 13th May Brother born 13th May Sister born 16th May Brother born 17th May Mother born 29th August Sister born 29th August My Mother and sister were born exactly 30 years apart to the minute on 29th August. So everyone in my family shared a birthday. It must have been difficult for my Mum when the 4 of us had bithdays in a week. Norah

duplication of names

Hi, I heard about you from Lost Cousins. I don't know if this is interesting but I have three daughters, 2 of them are named Jane born 1971, and Catherine born 1972. I did not know anything about my ancestors' names apart from my grandparents'. However, when I began to delve I found that my father's great great grandmother Catherine Raven 1813-1891 from Loweswater, Cumberland, had a sister Jane b 1810. Catherine married William Briggs 1808-1877 and among their children they had a Jane b1840 and a Catherine b1850. Cheers Angela Rigley

Family history

My grandfather's grandmother came from West Bromwich, West Midlands. She emigrated to South Australia with her family in 1853. Her son came to Western Australia in the gold rush of the late 1890s. His son (my grandfather), met and married my grandmother in Perth, Western Australia. My grandmother's grandfather was born in Handsworth, Staffordshire. He came to Victoria (another state of Australia) in 1864. His son came to WA in the gold rush of the late 1890s as well. His daughter (my grandmother), met and married my grandfather. I think that's a pretty amazing coincidence, but here's a summary. They: - were born in different English counties, albeit only one and a half miles away from eachother; - emigrated to different states of Australia at different times; - both moved with their families to WA at the same time; ... to be in the same place to meet and marry all the way over the other side of the world, three generations and 80 odd years after their families left England.

Spiegelhalter and Card Case

I turned on the television on 17th May and a programme called 'Antiques Road Trip' was on. At that moment, one of the experts had a silver card case in her hand, which I recognised as identical to one that I had. The following day, I looked for it but couldn't find it. I thought that I might know where it was but forgot about it until Sunday morning when I had a newsletter from a family history web site. This mentioned the coincidence collection and professor Spiegelhalter. This prompted me to look for the the card case again and there it was, in a tin, underneath a watch by Spiegelhalter of Whitechapel Road, London. I remembered that, some time ago, looking for the maker on the censuses and looked again at that of 1871. This included seven Spiegelhalters living in London, Yorkshire or Cornwall and, probably not a coincidence, all were Clock or watchmakers. Other family coincidences:- 1. My father-in-law married two women whose ancestors were neighbours in 1841 and a member of each family had married before, in 1842. Both wives had ancestors of the same surname from the same small area and may have had a common ancestor. 2.

Cousins

Tenyears ago I was living on a tiny island in Queensland.One day I was on the bus to the jetty and the only other passengers were a nice couple who helped me with my shopping.They were only staying on the island for three days.We realised we were both originally from UK and had some things in common.They came for lunch next day and the coincidences just continued amaze us.We had both lived in UK ,New Zealand and Australia withing a few miles of each other.Her cousins,who she lived with for a while, went to school with my brother and his future wife.The cousins grandparents (not hers) lived next door to my sister in laws parents and had the same last name.I had worked for the same company as Maureens former husband and we had gone on the same company outing to North Wales.These are only a very few of the coincidences we shared, our lives had travelled side by side for over 60 years.

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