Cambridge Coincidences Collection

We were always told as children by our mother that her grandfather had spent some time in India. When I started researching the family tree a few years ago I asked my aunt (my mother's sister) for information, and among other things she told me that her grandfather's first wife had died in India. I had been trying off and on to find out more, particularly when the IGI started putting Indian records on the internet, to no avail. I visited my aunt again in the autumn of 2011 and she showed me a photograph of the company my great grandfather had part-owned. It was called "Alexander, Gowans & Co." With a name we could get somewhere and it turned out the family had gone to Singapore rather than India. The address of his company was 76 Brass Bassa Road. My great grandfather was in Singapore between the years of 1889 and 1896 (approximately) before coming back to the UK. My brother (who lives in Australia) did a lot of the internet research about all this - and then a bell rang for him. A year or two ago he spent a night or two in Singapore and had chosen the hotel simply because he could get a good deal.

My sister and I are 9 years apart, myself being the younger. When we both lived at home in the 70's, we would both catch separate buses into Worcester city and return at different times. Then getting ready for an evening out we would both emerge from our bedrooms wearing identical outfits. This happened so frequently that I would refuse to clothes shop on the same day as my sister as I was fed up with constantly wearing the same clothes as her. The other coincidence that regularly happened, I would walk in from work singing a particular song only to find that my sister was not only singing the same song but was in fact at the same point in the song as I was. Spooky! Patricia Gunnell

In 1989 or 1990 I was serving as a staff sergeant with the Queens Gurkha Signal in Hong Kong. I was training a section of Gurkhas jungle warfare skills and i it was coming up to 4pm. 4pm is late in the jungle and we were tactically setting up up our end of day observation base. We heard the noise of a group of people talking. Through my night sights I could tell they where tourists dressed in t shirts and shorts on the path we were observing. I called out to them. All British all elderly and all lost An elderly lady heard my Scouse accent and asked where I was from. I said Kirkby, she said what school I said St Michaels. She put 2+2 together named 3 of my brothers and sisters and then vaguely remembered me. I assigned 2 of my Gurkhas to get them the mile to the road and called up transport on the radio. Never saw her again. 3 months later I met one of the group's daughter in an airport in Thailand.

1. I'm adopted - found out that sister I'd never met had an abortion on exact same day I had my first child. 2. I grew up in Lancashire and moved to Worcester in 1982. Discovered neighbour 5 doors away in Worcester used to live opposite me in Lancashire. 3. My Dad had physiotherapy treatment in Lancaster. Physiotherapist had relative who had previously lived in my house in Worcester. 4. As a student I worked/travelled in USA. In San Francisco I was watching street dancing then went to tourist office and signed visitors' book. Name immediately before mine was friend from school. During same summer in USA I met another school friend in another city. 5. I can think of at least half a dozen times when we've bumped into people we know on holiday - in UK or abroad. 6. When I had my third child i was in a hospital ward with 2 other mothers. All 3 of our children ended up in the same class (20 children in class) at secondary school despite school not being a state school with geographical catchment area.