Went out to visit some friends the other day.


They live probably 10 miles south west of us.


We were bullshitting and for some reason we got to talking about relatives and lineage.



I mentioned that I had recently found some letters that my foster mother had written to whoever was to adopt me.


I was in the foster system for a while in Helena Montana.


I told them that I had figured out who my foster parents were, and was thinking about sending them a letter. If for nothing else to let her know that it turned out okay for me.




Long story short.....the gal we were visiting just happened to be former roomates and current friends with the granddaughter of my foster mother.

She knew it instantly when I mentioned the last name....which is fairly uncommon.



Was kind of neat.




Anyone got a "small world" story?

Had a great great uncle that found out on his wedding day, that his bride to be was his half sister. It was W.Va. So they got married anyway.

Small World? that one sounds more like Divine Providence.

Kidding, he freaked out and disappeared. They found out after he died he’d been living in Washington state. Someone out there after he died shipped his ashes back to be buried in the family cemetery.

You really should do this Jim.

My Grandma and Grandpa Fostered over 40 kids on their farm, they always loved to hear of the successes, it always made their day when they received a letter from one.

Yup. And show her some of those vids with your kids.

Agree you should.....

Jim;
Good evening to you my cyber friend, I hope that you and your fine family are well as can be tonight.

Thanks for sharing that story with us, indeed it's a pretty small ball we're on sometimes is it not?

Since you asked, here's mine and it involves the 'Fire even.

Years ago we were discussing how dangerous Cape Buffalo were here and I mentioned that I knew a pair of brothers that I'd met in Kenya in '75, who subsequently moved to Zambia and one of them had been nearly killed by a Cape Buffalo.

Because the world can be small, I mentioned them without naming them and that was I thought that...

In came a PM from a chap who posted here back then called "Zambian", he not only named the first name of the brother who has almost been killed by the buffalo, but said he was sitting in the bush on a satellite system not too distant from where it had happened!

Further, he then named the first name of the other brother and said he'd met him in his home city of Lusaka, Zambia.

Honestly it still makes me shake my head a wee bit thinking about that, but nonetheless that's how it went down.

We sent a couple PM's back and forth and I asked him to say hello for me if he ran into either of the brothers as I'd rather lost track of them.

Anyway Jim, that's mine for now. Thanks again for the story and all the best to you and your family sir.

Dwayne

You should send them a letter. They'd probably appreciate knowing you turned out well and hearing about your family.

Met a whole lot of distant cousins at a fire dept smoker on the rez at Batesland SD

Hahaha! You should see my cousin list on 23 and Me.

Lets just say they are all in Alaska and they dont have indoor plumbing.

I mentioned Berlin Pa in a post.
Madmooner sent a PM, explaining his dad's growing up here,
moving away, and where to, having a hunting camp here...

I saw where Mooner was from, added things up and pretty much knew
who he was. Our grandparents were siblings.

So, I addressed my response in his name.
Kinda screwed with him a moment.


Pretty darn cool to come to the fire and find kin living across the
country. Especially a guy I only ever actually met once or twice.

I didn't think Eskimo's came in your size.

Why would you want to deal indoors? Sounds kind of native

Once banged a girlfriend on the It's A Small World boat ride in Disneyland.

Don't drink the water.

Crossbred with a Welsh miner in Butte, Montana.


'course that still dont explain it.....miners were probably pretty small....

Yeah that happens a lot in Montana.

Usually at the most inopportune times.

"I used to fugk her."

"That's my wife."

(run for door)

Not all of 'em, John Henry was a pretty big guy.

Boring I am sure but I was in Atyrau Kazakhstan for an interview as a secondee to a JV partner. I ended up spending three year there. .. I am in the elevator in the only hotel worth a chit (one that later became my home) and I hear a voice. It was from a Bechtel VP that I hadn't seen in ten years, at least.

We were getting new photocopiers at work and got a bid from a small local company. The company President came and made the pitch.

When we were done, she looked at me and said “Wanna. My grandfather’s name was Wanna.” I said “So was mine.”

She said “Wanna Bebwana.” I said “So was mine.”

She said “My grandmother’s name was Maria.” I said “So was mine.”

Turns out, her grandparents were from the same village in Transylvania that mine were. There were only about 6 families in the village so many shared last names. My grandparents emigrated in the 30’s to the city we were in, and hers emigrated to a smaller city 50 miles away.

I’m sure we’re related back a few generations. She only went down that road because my first name is not very common here.

Don't put down the Welch, other part is Highland scotch and pretty big my self

Have two very good friends today. One I have known since diapers, the other since the 80's.
In the early 70's I bought a life insurance policy and the agent had an unusual last name. He was from PA. and we were 20 somethings in KS at the time.
Jobs move you around and about 10 or 12 years later I met a man who had the same unusual last name.
Lo and behold he was the agents brother. Anyway we hit it off great and have been hunting, fishing, doing things socially ever since.
My childhood friend has been included in much of that.
Have done the foster kids also and it is neat when you get something about how they are doing.

Lol, reminds me of a boss that I had. A guy was looking at a new chainsaw and the boss was trying to sell it, just then on of the casheirs goes walking past us and the guy buying the chainsaw says "Man I don't know how you guys do it all day working around gals with asses like that". I started laughing and turned to walk away, just as I turned the boss says, "Dude, that's my wife"

5 minuts later I saw the guy walk out of the store with the saw and it really was his wife.

He was too busy shearing for you to run

First trip to South Africa, met Jack Knoop and one of the many tales he told was of being a mercenary in Uganda, back in the day. Got back to Huntsville and our salesman from New York stopped by my office to see where I had been lately. (He always did that when I was in town) Told him South African and he says, I actually know a guy from there named Jack Knoop. We were mercenaries together in Uganda.

2008, Naknek Ak getting drunk at the Fisherman’s Bar, and in walks a girlfriend from years back in East Glacier, Mt.

Sounds like a perfect match! 😎

That’s a good story Jim. I hope you get what you want from whatever decision you make. 👍

I’m sure that they’d be happy to know that you turned out great and you’re blessed with a beautiful family! That’s all the riches a man needs......that and a good waffle iron. Our Cuisanart just took a dump.

How far do you have to travel to meet someone from near home? More than 40 years ago, my wife and I were in England visiting her sister and her husband who was in the Air Force. We were all in line to get on a tour bus in London. My BIL nudged me and pointed at a suitcase on the ground belonging to a businessman standing in front of us. The big bold name tag said Mackay, ID. That's a town of maybe 500 about 150 miles north of here. I said 'Hmm, Mackay, ID, eh". He turned around and his eyes bugged out. He knew I was from somewhere close because I knew how to pronounce it like a local, MACK ee, not McKAY. He was traveling with his business and had a little time to kill so he was taking a bus tour like us.

There’s a whole bunch of big boys up there. I guess the strong survive

When I moved to Alaska from ND in 1968 to attend UAF I went into DMV to change state DL. The gal there recognized the town I was from and said "My sister used to run the cafe there, back in the early 50's. Did you know her?"


\Me: " Your sister used to give me cookies and milk when I was in the first grade, waiting for my older brother or sisters to walk me the mile home across a pasture full of nasty cows".

And sometimes they did.... mostly I walked alone and lived in fear, the bastids..... The cookies and milk were good though.

A local teaching couple here, some years ago, spent Xmas vacatuion in Hawaii. Long way from home so what the hell
- "Lets go to the (unofficial) nude beach"

First people they met there were their next door neighbors.

Dont know if it counts.
But I fugged my Cousin Amy,s doppleganger in a poofhaus in Germany
👍👍👍🤟🤟🤟🤟🤪🤪🤪🤪😎😎😎

Standby for a STX one-up...

There was this total wastoid friend of mine name Mike.

Well, one night me and mrs slumlord were walking on the beach in about 10pm, I see this stumbling figure fall down a couple times and get up and keep walking towards us, within about 6 ft I’m like “Mike-o”??? Wtf??

Him “duuuuuuuude”

Lmao


600 miles from the house



Then, it happened again, at an Alice in Chains show.

See a person face down at a picnic table, did a double take....Mike O again. JFC dude

“Man can i ride back to Clarksville with you and crazy larry...I’ve had like 20 valiums”

😃🤣🤪

Reminds me of tune that's hard to get out of ones head.

When I was working in the engineering department at my former job, we were sent to the Mid-America Trucking show in Louisville, KY to scope out the competitions trailers. I was attempting to walk through one of the HUGE buildings to find something to eat. It was literally shoulder to shoulder with people.The type of crowd where you walk 2 feet and wait for a minute for an opening to walk another 2 feet.

I got to about the halfway point and heard someone directly in front of me say my name. I looked up and it was the brother of my high school fling and his wife from small town NW MN.

I now call them my in-laws..

My grandfathers uncle had to vacate Wisconsin rather quickly. Something about some horses that were not his, and people with a rope looking for him. Anyways he ended up in a tiny middle of nowhere town in ND. Unknown to anyone in the family. Years down the line another uncle was selling silos in ND. At a diner talking to the waitress told her his name. She asked if he knew so and so. The uncle that disappeared was living in the town, and had been for awhile. They got in touch and him and his family made contact with relatives from Wisconsin. Still is some contact between some of the family.

I never got much into keeping up with distant relatives. Few years back there was a family reunion in North Dakota. Figure what the hell. I like the state. I looped further west and hit up Cody Wyoming first. Was one confusing reunion. The uncle that disappeared had numerous kids and grandkids. They were all named the same as the Wisconsin side of the family. So everytime you asked about so and so you had to say ND so and so or Wi so and so.

Had to go to Cincinnati for a work related deal a few years back. Told my boss before leaving, that I was going to take a couple extra days and drive up to Wright - Patt and tour the AF museum.
Drove up to Dayton and got a room, and went across the street to a restaurant. Only a few people in there at the time. I noticed two couples at a table across the room that kept looking at me, seemed every time I looked up, they were basically staring at me. I was wondering, " WTF, did I grow horns or something?"
After a bit, one of the men gets up and walks across the restaurant in my direction, approached my table, and said "excuse me, but my wife says that she thinks she knows you." I told him, "I doubt it, buddy. I'm not from these parts, just here on business."
He said, " well, she's not from here either. Are from North Carolina?" I said "yes, from a town that if you're not from there, you've never heard of.
He started laughing, and said " she is too," and proceeded to name the town. He motioned for her to come over, and I could see something vaguely familiar, but could not put a name with her.
Turns out she is the younger sister of one of my childhood friends that I hadn't seen in dang near 40 years. She was just a kid, maybe 12 or 13, the last time I had seen her.

How close is TN to WV?

Not as interesting as some others, but here goes...I am a residential construction project manager and was meeting with a landscape contractor for a home I was in the process of finishing up on the lake here in Sandpoint, ID. We ended up chatting about non work related things and quickly got around to our shared experiences both growing up in rural San Diego, CA.....she and I thought we’d never met when we started this conversation. Anyway, we figured out pretty quickly that as a young lady she waited tables at Tom’s Chicken Shack in Julian, CA in the late 70’s, a place where my family stopped regularly for dinner after spending time fishing or hunting up near Lake Cuyamaca or Mt Palomar. Based on her work schedule at the time, it’s a certainty that we met all those years ago while she was serving us dinner (I would have been about 12 and she about 18 years old). By the way, she ended up with the contract for both the hardscape and landscaping and did a beautiful job.....best shoreline on the block.

During WWII, Dad, his mother and sisters, went to California to work in the ship yards. While walking down a street one day, they met a neighbor that lived about a 1/2 mile from them in Louisiana.

While working on the BP Oilspill, I was assigned to work in Alabama. Spent a year at one place and became good friends with a fellow and his wife. This fellow also met my wife, but the wives were never there at the same time. While my wife was visiting an aunt in Tx, the aunt commented that she had a cousin, and this cousins husband was working the Spill in Alabama. My wife asked where the man worked and was told the same place I worked. My wife mentioned my friends name and wanted to know if it might be him, and it was.

In the early 2000's, I had a job that required me to travel a lot, mostly flying around the country. I flew so much, that I dont remember where I was, but I was at an airport one day and some soldiers walked up and sat next to me. After a bit, there were 7 or 8 of them and they were from different places, but catching a plane to their new assignment. They were introducing themselves to each other and one of the black guys said he was from Woodville, Ms. Woodville is the next town over from where I lived and nobody from that part of the country pronounces it like it is spelled. Home folks pronounce it Wolvul. So I just said out of the blue, "He's lying, he's not from Wolvul". They all turned, looked surprised, but a big grin came over the young man's face and he asked where i was from. I told him Centreville, pronounced by home folks as Sinnervul. He laughed and told the rest of the group that we were from neighboring towns and only someone from that area would know how to pronounce it the way we did.

Again while working, I was in SeaTac one day when a fellow walked up to me and called me by name. It took a minute, but it was a fellow I worked with back in the early 70's. He was headed to Alaska.

I was doing a job in Portsmouth, NH and ran into my BIL. He was working at SeaBrook. Both of us live in Louisiana.

My son and his wife are foster parents. So, I know how much time, effort, sacrifice, AND love go into doing it. They are still young, and the kids they've had are still too young to know any thing about what has been going on, but I know how much they appreciate getting information on the kids they've fostered, If I were you, I'd let the people know.

Beautiful story, I'm happy for you man.

Had a hot classmate in Berlin, Germany in the summer of 1994. She was from New Mexico. Three years later, in 1997, I was sitting in a small bar in Corpus Christi with my friends, and she walked in the door.

Ran into a a guy that I played high school football with coming out of the chow hall at Torrejón Air Base in Madrid. He didn't know I had joined the AF, I didn't know he got an appointment to the Airforce Academy. Heard he truned into a pretty good F-15 pilot...

My wife and I were in Rome, Italy a few years ago and overheard a conversation among others nearby. We were curious and joined the conversation to learn that one of them was a school principal in Ohio whose daughter was best friends with Liz, a payroll secretary I'd hired years before about 300 miles away. Interestingly, Liz had gone to college in PA and met her PA husband, liking his home town (Wellsboro, PA) enough to get married there instead of her home town - just like my wife and I. The small world continues - it turns out my wife and Liz had been on the same plane on their high school trip to France back in 1980.

Another one comes to mind. We were antiquing on our way back from a long weekend trip and found a stock certificate from an old telephone company from about 100 years ago. The company name was bold and drew my interest since it was from a very small northern PA town - Roulette. When I looked more closely, that certificate was in my Great Grandfather's name. How it got in an antique shop 250 miles away, I'll never know, but it's in my home now.

Was up in Akron Ohio and had a limo driver once, shooting the bull and asked where I was from. I said Macon, Ga. He told me he was stationed and Camp Wheeler before the war. Sort of cool considering the age difference at the time.

I got in a cab in Ft. Benning, Georgia in 91’.
The cab driver started asking us boys where we were from. When I said Bedford, Indiana the guy looks around at me and says,”I was in Vietnam with a guy from Bedford, Indiana”.
I say, “It’s a small town. I may know him. What was his name?”
He says, “ Dennis Trowbridge.”
I about fell out of the cab. It was my uncle.
I gave the guy my uncles phone number and he called Uncle Dennis and they ended up talking quite frequently. It had been 23 years since they had seen each other.
When my aunt and uncle moved to Phoenix City, Alabama in 98, he and my uncle would get together and have breakfast.

Did the letters reveal how your Forster parents had procured you?

Most of you know the "small world " story Jim Martin [aka ET] and I share from our battlefield encounter in SEA ..I have others with discovering family tree members but our encounter especially here at the Fire some 41 yrs later was truly remarkable !

If you want to see a small world visit Kaycee, Wyoming on Fathers Day.

No.

We knew that however.


The Nuns at Catholic Social Services.

In about 1984 I was in Singapore attending a gas turbine school and was almost back to the Mandarin Hotel when a taxi passed by me and stopped at the front door area and with a pair of cowboy boots hanging out of the driver’s side back window.

I walked around by the passenger side and the driver was trying to wake his passenger up to get out. I looked in and knew the guy very well and finally got him to sit up. Drunk as a pissant.

When his eyes finally focused he said, “ Hey, Ole Podnah, what the f’k are you doing here in Jakarta?”

I told him, “Bellue, Ole Buddy, you’re in Singapore not Jakarta “.

Bellue yelled at the driver, “Get me the f’k back to the airport right now “. Then said, “I’ll see ya later, Man “.

Years later I ran into him again in Dubai. We had a good laugh about that.

Nothing as amazing as some of the stories here, but...

About a year ago, the little church we attend had a dedication service, (we moved to a new location) and a representative from the group of churches that we belong to came to give a sermon and help with the dedication. He sat in the pew in front of me and at one point, turned his head and I was a little shocked to see that I recognized him. His family an mine had ridden the same school bus as kids and into high school. That was a couple hundred miles and 30+ years ago.

We had a good chat after his sermon, which was very good. He's pretty gifted in that regard.

Never ever send a letter . Just buy liquor

That sounds like the apex of your life.

That happens everywhere, that’s my sister you MFer. I’m gonna whip yo ass!!!!

I didn’t mean to fuuck her!!

Actually, Flave, the apex was watching you finger your self while drunk one of the many drunk nights that you were in full bloom.

Memorable.

Via Ruckkus.

Send them a letter or go see them.

Montana is big country, small world. Go see em, they care.

May have posted this before. Started a new job out here in AZ in 2017. 2018 new guy joins our project, about my age, sits at desk next to mine. He's been out West since he was 10 or so, so sometime in the mid-late sixties. I came out in 2004. We get to talking, turns out he's from Monongahela, PA. I say, that's right down the road from where I grew up, in Bentleyville, PA. He replies, holy schitt, my Dad was from Bentleyville. Turns out I grew up maybe 150 yards from his family's homestead (still in their family), and his Dad and my Mother were literally neighbors from 1934 up until the War when they moved. We may have actually met as kids when his family would visit, we just didn't remember.

I won’t judge if the highlight of your adulthood is watching a grown man touch himself.

I dated a Yupik gal for a couple years, she was Shaman, also had a unique last name. The missionaries had shuffled her out of her village and sent her to Helena for high school.

It was an amazing couple years.

I have a sneaky suspicion you've eaten some Dudley's bread a time or two.

I grew up "down the hill" a ways from the places you mentioned. Recreated there often. Relatives lived in Ramona, my cousins, still do.

Nothing too interesting.

Went to work at a new place once. Couple of guys come over.

"Hey, you name Geno?"

Yes

"Whatta you last name"

I told them

"You family fromma tha Palermo?"

Being from a family only one generation removed from a certain island in the Mediterranean with a reputation for having invented the vendetta, I was hesitant to say. But they recognized the name from the old country. Our family name was not very common in the US of A for many years, there are more of us running around here now, being Catholic and what not. We used to look in the phone books of every town when traveling in the 60's to see if we could find any of us we didn't know.

Interesting.

They have 23 & Me but no indoor plumbing..............


What a world we live in.

I was back in Northern New York visiting my Dad. Etta and I stopped at a small second hand and antique store in the small two where I grew up. I was run by a gentleman who had served on the school board with Dad. He asked about Alaska and asked if I remembered Jeff, a kid from high school whom he said was in Wasilla. I told him Jeff had been two years behind me and graduated with my brother. I remembered him. Our school had 31 people in my graduating class. You knew everybody.

I asked the store owner if he had a number for Jeff. He did not. A few days later I was at an old gun shop I had done business with in the 70's. It was run by the grandson of the old guy I bought guns from. They had a rifle I was interested in and I bought it. I was making arrangements to ship it to an FFL in Wasilla and he asked if I knew Jeff and that he had an FFL and they occasionally shipped guns back and forth. He did have a number for Jeff. When I got back to Alaska I called him. We lived a half a mile apart. We have since become good friends and in fact I performed his marriage ceremony a couple of weeks ago.

Not a s mall weld story, but...

Was delivering to a store in Welch WV, standing by the door waiting on the
manager. A guys is staring at me, then walks over and says,
"You Dan Hatfield's boy?"

"No sir, i aint fron around here!"

Welch is in the part of WV famous for Hatfield's, and McCoys.

Was on the beltway outside DC on a Friday eve sitting still in traffic coming home for the weekend from Norfolk back in 86'. I hear someone yell my name and look over and there's a friend from my home town waving at me.

A few years ago I took my daughter out hunting first day of buck in PA and on our way into the woods to my blind we met an older gentleman at his tree stand he had positioned up on the ridge above us. We spoke a little and wished each other luck. Come spring my buddy sends me a link to a boat I might be interested in being sold by someone right outside of Pittsburgh (1.5 to 2 hours west of me). We go look at the boat and I agree to his price. He tells me he's had the boat at the lake near where I live and told me where he goes there to hunt. I looked at the black Toyota in his drive and it hit me. I said "I met you in November on the first day of buck season under your tree stand!"

Crazy small world.

Yeah, I was cruising the Hi-Line on my way to see a student one sunny summer day. Got about 8 miles from your A/O when I spied a Texan heading your way on a bicycle....which he rode the WHOLE way up to your place. Seems I had met him before....

Three years ago, I sold a rifle, through the classifieds here, to a woman in central PA. I told her that my brothers-in-law and I used to deer hunt in her area in the 1970's. I told her the name of the dairy farmer who we stayed with, and that i'd heard that the farm had since been sold.

She told me that the former farmer is her husband's best friend, and she had him and his family to her house just the previous week for his retirement party! Small world indeed!!!

When I was 20, I moved from the coast of Alabama to downtown Atlanta, 1 block from the original projects. Huge fuggin' place it was.

One morning I was walking to my car and a brutha was approaching from the 'bad' direction. He gets to my car 1st, does a double take, and keeps walking towards me. We past each other and I start to get in my car. He spins around and hollers, "You from Baldwin Co."? I was breakin' nervous at this point, but answered yes anyway since my tag was a dead giveaway. He says "Damn, me too. I used to stay in Foley. Graduated in '91. I hollered back, "Holy schidt, me too. It's a small world. I gotta go"!

I lived there for about 6 more months and never saw the guy again. We had a touch over 300 in our graduating class, maybe 10% black. I looked thru yearbooks and such. Never did figure out which brutha that was.

Nothing great.
Got a Weaver V9 AO.from Service Merch when i was in 6th grade.
The gal I married worked there then, may have sold it to me and my dad.
Didnt cash in my coupon until many yrs later LOL

Pops came over on a boat when he was a kid.
My ol.lady was born overseas in a diff country.

Both sides moved to some chithole here.

Damn the luck.

When I was on the RR up in Alaska (three summers at Fairbanks and Anchorage), each year I randomly ran across at least one friend from Montana, out in the street, with neither having any idea the other was in the North Star Republic. Those were funny.
Another odd one, I was riding my rice rocket on Highway 1 in northern California about 100 miles north of SFO, decided to pull over for a snack and the two people at the overlook/wide spot were HS classmates of mine.
Those are just the small-worlds over 1000 miles from home. Have had a number of others, enough to realize the world is shockingly small.

I'd have probably said,

"Nope, my name's SMITH"

I would not want either of those names in those parts I think.

Guilty as charged on the Dudleys Bread 👍🏻 Lots of family still in the area and a bunch of relatives laid to rest in a little cemetery in Alpine.