Spooky experiences while researching

[MaryA]

Thanks Pam, I expect that's where my next Bank Holiday Day out will be then    It sounds worth taking a note of those entries for future reference.  It's unfortunate that I can't get my lot back to there yet ...... maybe one day.

Mary

[PamH]

Hi Mary

I don't know if you have seen this site before, but it is a good resource.

http://www.marisancestry.co.uk/Trails/Lunt.htm

There is another one and it has a huge database and it may just be contained within the above link, but I am not 100% sure.  You will have to let me know as I haven't been on there for a while, keep getting side tracked!! 

Pam

[MaryA]

Thanks for that link Pam, that's one I haven't seen, although it seems as if that family have their roots in Cheshire whereas mine are in Liverpool at least back to about 1750.  Maybe Ann, the mother of Benjamin could have had links to Liverpool before that.

Looking at the recent photograph on there, I wouldn't discount a family likeness however, see this picture of my dad and his two brothers.

Ooops photo far too big, hope this is better!  It would have been taken when dad (on the right) was over 80, the one in the middle about 7 years younger and the one on the left about 2 years older than dad.  They all share that shiny head with the Lunt from the link!!!

[Hopton]

OK this is my third attempt to write this, I have given up twice and not pressed Post.

So I'll keep it very brief.

 I smell perfume, it is very strong, as if they are standing next to you, and comes and goes very quickly.

I got the strong sent of my Grandma's perfume, just before getting a big breakthrough on her family, I had nothing on her family, then it just seemed to open up to me with information and connections coming from all directions. It happens very rarely maybe four or five times in the past ten years, I am never thinking about the person at the time it just comes out of the blue.

  I am open minded about these things, and quite happy to find an explanation for them, but as yet I have not found one for this.

   I am not frightened by it, I find it quite comforting.

I'm also having a few problems with my door bell at the moment, but thats another story.

   Janet.

[PrueM]

Hi Janet 

How lovely to get a whiff of your grandma's perfume.  She obviously likes to be around you even now...I am a great one for smells and aromas and scents, they evoke amazing memories and thoughts for me where they don't for other people, so maybe some of us are more attuned to smell than other sensations like visions or sounds etc.

Another story about smells, although  not to do with research...About 10 years ago, my husband's uncle-by-marriage was killed in a car accident.  Hubby's mum went to stay with her sister a little later on, at the time of the inquest.  My mother in law likes to get up very early in the morning before anyone else is awake, so one morning she had made herself tea and toast and went to sit in the sunroom to have her breakfast.  Suddenly she could smell cigar smoke, and she recognised it as the smell of the ones uncle Bill had liked to smoke!  She looked around and couldn't see any smoke or anyone about...it slowly faded away but she realised that she was sitting in Bill's favourite chair at the time.  It freaked her out a bit, but she's never told anyone but me about it. 

Prue

P.S. for the sceptics :  no, it wasn't residual cigar smoke in the armchair, because Bill wasn't allowed to smoke in the house, and the armchair is leather so had no buildup of odours.

[Hopton]

Hi Prue,

  Yes the first time it happened to me I was very freaked out, I really did think I was imagining things, it is not something I usually bring up in conversation either as people tend to think I'm very strange (well they probably think that any way)
The first time it happened was while I was pregnant with my first child, I had gone for a lie down in the middle of the day, and I got the sent of a very close friend of the family who had died earlier in the year,   She was a very heavy smoker, and I got a strong mix of her perfume and cigarettes, which was just her.
     I am more used to it now, though as I said it happens rarely, yes smell does bring back lots of lovely memories.

    Janet.

[jinks]

Just been reading the post (back catologue)
and it reminded we of something that had happened
just last week (I think it may be put
in coincidence rather than spooky)

I have more success with some families than others
so last week I tried to get my Paternal Grandmothers back a couple more generations.... and found out quite a bit . previous marriages that I
did not know about (1st , 2nd, 3rd etc) and I came
across a possible (at this time) marriage of one of
my Grans Great Grandfathers he appears to have
been married three times  , but my WIFE is
the problem (the second is my direct line), and
then I spotted WHALES, so I rang my Father and
mentioned my Grandfathers humour about being
desended from Wales, (As in Name rather than
place). My father said that sounded like his fathers
dry wit and thinking. But that he was his Fathers
side that supposedly came from Wales not
his Mother side (according to his father) so what do
I find a couple of days later but my Paternal
Grandfather did indeed have WELSH ancestry......

This has all happened with in the last week or two
so at present have not familarised myself
with the new information.

By the way I will let you know if the WHALES lady
turns out to be the right one too, its just that
there are Three poosibles for my Betty in the timescale, which is a little strange because I can
not find that many people in the area with the
same  surname + forename as her husband!!

Jinks

[MrsLizzy]

I've smelt my grandmother's distinct "personal aroma" a few times since she died in 1994 - you know: the combination of different products a person uses all the time, and the way they all react on an individual's skin, to make up that one fragrance that no-one else has!  Once it wafted past my nose just as we were all standing in my brother's sitting room, watching his two year old daughter playing.  Charlotte is my grandmother's only great-grandchild and she loved children the way I love animals.  I think she was with us.  I've never seen her or anything, just smelt her "aroma" - and that not recently.

[Hopton]

Hi Mrslizzy and Pru,

  I'm so glad others have had this experience, it always takes me by complete surprise when it happens, but I am very pleased that it happens.

  I think you have described if perfectly "wafted past my nose" it always disappears far too quickly.

  Janet.