Connections!!

Friday night and Parade's End had come to an end. Flicking through the TV channels we decided that a programme about real servants looked the most likely to have on in the background whilst doing other things - knitting, looking at Facebook etc. Husband then casually mentions his grandmother who he knew to have been in service - just where was she?
The 1911 census gave her address in Cheltenham. Google maps provided an image of the actual house - not the grand estate that had been the inital thought but a substantial property where she had been housemaid to a woman and her companion.
This discovery prompted a search to find out more about the lady of the house and first port of call was the Forest of Dean genealogy site. Here I discovered that the founder of the site had sadly died and then I could find nothing about the mistress of the household. Whilst on the site, however, I decided to just add the names of a few elusive relatives - sisters of the said grandmother - elusive possibly as a result of the surname "Jones". Oh my goodness - there they were - both of them!
Putting together what I knew - names and location, on this particular site the transcriptions of the parish records are excellent - full details of marriages - including names of fathers and witnesses. I found both their marriages probably after over a decade of searching.
By this time I was totally hooked to the laptop and only half glancing at the TV - by now moved on to the news. I quickly found children from both marriages, in laws, then grandchildren. The tabs at the top of the browser increased - Ancestry, genesreunited, freeBMD, google maps, forest-of-dean, ravelry!! The family was growing - first cousins of my late mother in law, their children and grandchildren. Very distant relatives my husband commented until we calculated just how many children and grandchildren of my late parents' cousins we know and keep in touch with on a very regular basis - what about Julie and Debbie and Mary I said?
A little after midnight I reluctantly pulled the lid of the laptop done and went to bed.
Teeth brushed, shower, washing in, cup of tea and laptop opened. A clue from one website led to more names and another location from telephone directories on the 1960s. A road in Bristol that I had driven dowm countless times with the younger daughter when she had been at university - spooky. Another road in Lambeth ( lovely house - wonder what it was like all those years ago) and is this near to where younger daughter's dear friend lives?
So many connections and some wonderful new names - not a Jones in sight - a Smith but then you can't win them all.
I am so excited by all these new discoveries. I was one sleeve off finishing a lovely Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino cardigan but that is going to have to wait a while as is the denim blue cotton baby jacket that I had just been commissioned to knit - by the friend who had come to tea having recently lost Demi. How things change in a few hours. Yesterday I was in realms of negativity - no eggs, dead cats......but as the day progressed what excitement, what joy at new discoveries. I feel energised, full of optimism for the day. What wonderful things will I find out today? It is a while since I have felt so inspired by my family history research and so full of wonder at life's "coincidences". If Parade's End hadn't finished we would not have been flicking channels to find something to watch. If we hadn't watched the Servants programme husband wouldn't have mentioned his grandmother. It I hadn't looked at the Forest of Dean site for one thing I wouldn't have found the other thing that I had not been looking for at the time. There is a saying that there are no such things as coincidences, just god's way of performing a miracle and staying anonymous - I rather like that.