{"id":3825,"date":"2026-10-02T23:26:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T23:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3825"},"modified":"2026-10-02T23:26:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T23:26:59","slug":"when-the-universe-almost-got-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3825","title":{"rendered":"When the Universe Almost Got It Right"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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AI Image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s October, my favorite time of year for sharing the synchronicities I\u2019ve experienced over the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think I may have finally found a clue to what triggers these odd experiences i<\/em>f \u201cchanneling\u201d is even the right word. For me, it seems to be travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, we stayed close to home due to my husband\u2019s surgery. This year, now that he\u2019s recovered, we\u2019ve been on the move again and with that movement came two unusual moments. One for him, one for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, we\u2019ll talk about his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my mother\u2019s 108th birthday, I made the three-hour drive to Chicago to have the last of our dual citizenship documents apostilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The date wasn\u2019t intentional. I had planned to go the week before, but I was still recovering from the Sahara dust storm I encountered in Crete. April 14th simply became the most practical option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drive was anything but smooth; pounding rain, a major accident, closed exits, heavy traffic, and no convenient parking. What should have taken three hours stretched to nearly four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the clerk\u2019s office, things went surprisingly well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had expected an issue with my mother\u2019s record. Her official \u201cbirth record\u201d was, in fact, a no record found document something I knew might happen. Family history and church records I obtained confirmed that her birth had been registered through a Roman Catholic parish, which at the time was acceptable. Later changes in the law complicated that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I didn\u2019t expect was that the county would issue an official vital record stating the absence of a record. Several colleagues have since told me that shouldn\u2019t have happened, that it should have been a simple letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apostille clerk hesitated. Paused. Looked again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then approved it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some might call that a gift from the universe. I call it something simpler: common sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn\u2019t linger. Severe storms were forecast, and we wanted to get home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crossing into Indiana, as we passed through Gary, my husband suddenly said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to drive by my old house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was\u2026 unusual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m the one who detours for old homes, cemeteries, and ancestral land. He\u2019s the one who prefers the direct route. And we had already agree, get home as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I nearly made the exit but couldn\u2019t get over in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked if he knew another way. He did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he said something that stopped me: \u201cI don\u2019t know why I just said that. I have no idea why I want to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had just returned from Greece, where he had patiently followed me to a remote ancestral location tied to my mtDNA from two thousand years ago. So, naturally, I was willing to return the favor. Fifteen minutes out of our way seemed more than fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I moved toward the next exit, he spoke again: \u201cI didn\u2019t know we had to pay a toll here. Forget it. Just go home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked if he was sure. He was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t even know why I wanted to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made it home just before the storms hit. As we walked in the door, his phone pinged. An email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He opened it, paused, and said: \u201cOh\u2026 you won\u2019t believe this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message was from his childhood friend, Bill, who now lives in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill had traveled to northwest Indiana to visit his mother who, as it turns out, shares the same birthday as my mom’s. Her 91st.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in town, Bill decided to visit his old neighborhood. He stopped at their former elementary school now an antique mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there, on the wall, were class photos. Not from every year. Not from every class. Just his class, grades 1 through 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that exact moment, while we were passing through Gary on the interstate, Bill was standing there, looking at those photos, thinking about my husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wrote that he wished he had thought to reach out. That they could have met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had been minutes away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet we drove on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t help but think of the FAN Club in genealogy: friends, associates, and neighbors. The people who surround our ancestors and, in many ways, become extensions of family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We trace them on paper. We follow their movements. We reconstruct their connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sometimes those connections don\u2019t stay in the past. Sometimes, the connection is still there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


We just don\u2019t take the exit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s October, my favorite time of year for sharing the synchronicities I\u2019ve experienced over the past year. I think I may have finally found a clue to what triggers these odd experiences if \u201cchanneling\u201d is even the right word. For me, it seems to be travel. Last year, we stayed close to home due to … Continue reading “When the Universe Almost Got It Right”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3825"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4010,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions\/4010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}