Ancestor April Fools Joke

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A page from the past drew her near,
By chance—or by fate unclear.
In a deed to a brother,
She found roots like no other—
And “forever” rang strangely sincere.

I had to share what had just happened to me on April 2nd. The universe played a very odd trick on me!

I began on Monday looking over all my accumulated research on my British families for my next family genealogy book I'll be writing later this year. I was insuring I had all proof of relationships and had the correct identities as between my husband and I we have a lot of common names - Smith, Porter, etc.

Our people came first to New England and then to Long Island, New York before the end of the 1600s. I was using Familysearch.org labs to help and found some amazing records but I'll save that for another post.

On Wednesday morning we had severe weather - hail, thunder, and lightning so I didn't want to go straight to work on my computer. Instead, I lingered over coffee and read my email. I subscribe for free to the AmericanAncestors.org weekly newsletter. There was an article about a New York project to help transcribe recently digitized records to identify the enslaved. Sounded interesting.

When the storm passed I decided to just check out the project. I randomly selected Records of Slavery-Town Records, Book 4, 1681-1712. I didn't even bother to create an account, figuring I'd just do the minimum of three pages and then get back to my own tasks.

When I opened the database I noticed that others had already started so I didn't want to begin where they left off, figuring they'd come back that day and continue. I randomly selected page 83.

I almost fell out of my chair. It was a land record in Oyster Bay, Long Island from Nathaniel Cole to his brother, Daniel. They are my 5th great uncles!

One brother was giving the other part of his land to his heirs FOREVER. Now I know forever doesn't really mean that - as the land was legally sold over the years but it made me laugh. I worked for a company that was headquartered near where this land was and one of my kids went to a university that was also close by. Gave me pause and the creeps.

How in the world did I randomly select a page out of all the options and land on one that was my ancestor? I have no idea but I decided the rest of the day was Cole Day so this universe late April Fools joke on me just might yield some further info on that family.