I have a number of amazing coincidences. Married twice and having four children from my second marriage my first three were boys and finally my fourth was a daughter. I had always wanted to call a daughter Jane I don't know why, no other name but that, so finally I had a Jane Margaret Howard. Many years later when researching my family history at the Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock, I was looking at a film of parish records which included the one for Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire, I was looking for my KEELING ancestors (who lived and worked at the Ashford Marble works as masons) and I discovered that my 2 x gt. grandfather Benjam KEELING had married a Jane HOWARD! She was my 2 x gt. grandmother - explain that. Shivers crept up my spine. Not only that but a short time later the same film fast forwarded, abrupty stopped and I was looking at the marriage registers for St. Michael's church, Derby and there in front of me were the details of my maternal grandparents ie. William Henry BROWN to Mary TURNER in November, 1889. I couldn't remember my maternal grandparents wedding date, and this seemed to be my granny saying "look, we're here". Very strange.
In my youth I took up caving in the Peak District and was strongly attracted to the exploration of the old lead mines and drainage levels called soughs, very dangerous places, specially the soughs, the earlier ones being small narrow passages, full of mud, water and often gas. There is not a lot known about the Derbyshire leadmining industry these days but I have lots of information about them, and I was very interested about the stories of the driving of the first sough to dewater a mine at Cromford, the sough was Longhead and was driven in the early 1600's by the Dutchman Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (who carried out a lot of other drainage work in England) to dewater lead mines on the top of Cromford Hill called the Dove Gang mines. There was a lot of trouble at these mines, fighting, lawsuits etc. I've always been very interested in these stories. Well after my second divorce, along with my four children I moved back to live in Derbyshire, at Bonsall very close to Cromford and Wirksworth. Recently I left Derbyshire and have more time for family research and on the internet I have found through my maternal grandmother (Mary TURNER) I am descended from the COATES family of Ashover, Cromford and Wirksworth. This family were involved in the driving of Longhead sough and the strife on the Dove Gang mines, they were yeoman farmers, lead miners and smelters (ore burners or "brenners") and they can be traced back to the mid 1500's in Wirksworth. Not only that but one of the COATES wedding took place at Bonsall church in 1701. Why, I often wonder of all the places to choose to explore and then move to did I pick Bonsall, Cromford and Wirksworth? Very strange.
Margaret
