CLOSE FAMILY FOUND ....

In 1982 when my husband and I were moving from Buckinghamshire to London we were house-hunting in Blackheath . During a viewing in one beautiful semi-detached house , its owner said " it would be funny if you bought this house as our neighbours are also called ' A.... ' . As it is not an uncommon surname we thought nothing of it , and actually bought another property half a mile away . Some months later when we were installed in our new house I answered the door bell . There on the threshold was a jolly looking middle aged man who said "you don't know me , but I am ............. and I believe your husband is my first cousin " . I invited him in and listened to his story , which was riveting . I learnt that he and his wife lived in the other half of the 'semis' we had previously viewed , only half a mile away , and that we had never known of the other's existence until this time . Our cousin's father had disappeared after WWII and only now had the old boy been traced . As a result of finding his long lost father our 'new' cousin was throwing a large party to celebrate this , and had been searching for family members to invite . Thus , my husband , at the age of 55 had the great good pleasure of meeting his new cousin , and but for lack of sufficient finances to purchase the other house we would actually have been living next door to him and his family . Even selecting Blackheath as an area to explore when house hunting was a shot in the dark ... we knew little about it until the early 80s ! There is a great deal more to the story which would take too long to relate !