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. My interest in family history began after booking a holiday, unknowingly, at an ancestral home. Later, I found out that I had lived in a street named after a person connected with the house. A few others, more complicated to explain.