Has anyone ever found out they are related to their best friend? Etc.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Don't forget, Diana, I'm still working on 'em!
TY

[brigidmac]

Diana Canada
Something similar saw a distant michagan  relative to my mum with my father's surname
On tree ...it was by marriage

Then found a cluster of michagan based matches who had a Canadian lumberjack ancestor .
With links to this Scottish side  father's side

There was adoption and illegitimacy along the lines . I  looked into the family to help an adoptee
But we did work out probable connection to a Scottish gold miner


https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=838188.msg7036929#msg7036929

[DianaCanada]

Don't forget, Diana, I'm still working on 'em!
TY

Thanks TY, but this is another branch, doubt if there is any connection with the Burrows' lot until my great grandparents married in the early 1880's.
My family line in Chipping is Kenyon and OH is Parkinson (lots of those in the area, I had a bit of luck with his ancestor's obituary in Guelph, Ontario to help figure out which John Parkinson was her father).

[DianaCanada]

One of my son’s best friends is distantly related to him, and they have been friends since they were three years old, since 1990. Their fathers both moved to Ontario from the same area of Quebec, although they didn’t know each other - but my then mother in law knew all about the connection.

OH and I both have ancestors from Chipping, Lancashire from the early 1800s.  Not unusual for locals in Lancashire perhaps but I was born in Quebec and he was born in Michigan. His Chipping folk came in Canada in 1842.  Am sure if we could trace them further back we would have ancestors in common.  Ancestry DNA shows we share at least one distant cousin.

After posting the above I had a look at OH's DNA results and found a new connection for him.  The surname is Fairburn and one arrived in Ontario before the 1851 census.  I had theorized that he was from Bridlington, Yks.  The new connection indeed connects to that family in Bridlington.  And wouldn't you know it, I have an ancestor born in Bridlington who ended up in Halifax, W. Yks.  His family wasn't long established in Bridlington, though - parents from two small towns to the east.  His father was a ship's carpenter.

[Denis Poore]

Somewhat the same thought. My wife and I have ancestors that together examined the body of Thomas Becket after his murder.

[Rena]

My OH's maternal line and my maternal line both go back to a "Riches" family in Norfolk, but I haven't searched for a connection.

Maybe that was why I could usually finish his sentences for him lol.

[Josephine]

Several years ago, a new colleague at work mentioned in passing that some of her ancestors were from a specific area in Maine. I asked what their surnames were and she didn't respond. When she mentioned the area again, in the same conversation, I repeated my question. She tried to brush me off, but I persisted, and what do you know: we're distant cousins!

It was a funny coincidence, because at the time we were both living within walking distance of each other in a city in Canada, far removed from where our ancestors lived, and we were working in an area that was quite a distance from where we were living. If we hadn't both been into genealogy, we'd never have known we were related. We became friends and it's fun to have the added connection of cousinhood.

[Rena]

I was retired when I first started researching my mainland European ancestry.   Eventually  I came across a chap online who was also researching his European line.  We weren't trying to trace the same surname but I just had a feeling that I should stick close to him and told him so.   Eventually I learnt his surname and mentioned that I knew a girl at school in the same year as me who had the same surname.  It turned out that she was his much older sibling.   I privately reminisced about my schooldays and recalled that we did have similarities in height, hair colour, etc.   I didn't normally attend the annual old pupil gathering but that year I went and waited for my new found female cousin to walk through the door - the long and the short of it was that I was the titchy desk bound one and she was a virtual tall athletic healthy Amazonian

[mare]

One of a sister's grandsons and a cousin's grandson, now in their mid twenties, buddied up at college and unaware they were related. There wasn't a name connection being down the female lines from our grandmother, with her daughters, their daughters and daughters all changing surnames and the boys and their mothers hadn't previously met. Niece though had met our cousin at earlier gatherings and recognised her straight away once they were eventually together and realised the coincidence.