My husband and I were tracing his family tree and discovered my dad's family lived 4 miles from his mom's family in the early 1900's. Upon further research, we found out his great-great-grandfather was the doctor who delivered my Gram.

Many years ago, we were on holiday on Cyprus, visiting Nicosia. My dad didn't want to have to try and find somewhere to park our hire car in the centre, so he parked in a residential street just off the main road. I dutifully copied down the street name in Greek, so we could find it again, and we walked into the city. It was a longer walk than we thought, so we decided to get a taxi back. We went to the taxi rank and showed the street name to one of the drivers. A bit of a kerfufflle went on in Greek and he asked "why do you want to go there?". My dad explained that he had parked our car there under the shade of a tree. Another driver then says "You park under my trea?". We thought it was a joke. Anyway, the first driver agreed to take us and when we arrived at the car, he told us that we were parked outside the other driver's house! It was indeed his tree!

Was on a tour in Europe and the group was all sitting down for a meal in Amsterdam when I heard my name. It was a guy I worked with many years ago, on the same tour.

I was in grade 5 during Canada's centennial year, 1967. I had the most wonderful teacher and to celebrate Canada's birthday he and his wife were going to bicycle across the country, starting in Vancouver B.C. The night before they left they were staying at a campground there and didn't have much with them because they had to carry everything on the bikes or their backs. A family was camping right next to them and the family ask he and his wife to join them for dinner. Introductions were made and the father said "Im (his name)". Very uncommon last name. My teacher said, "That's interesting. I have a girl in my class by that last name" The dad asked him what the first name is. My teacher told him my first name. He said, "That's my niece."

On my honeymoon I went to an Irish bar in San Diego and the singer started playing “living next door to Alice”. Well, as any Irish person will tell you, there’s a particular way you sing the chorus. The singer stopped and said “there’s some real Irish in tonight!”. Later we got talking to him when we went up to ask for a particular song and it turns out he was Irish himself and used to live on the road directly behind my MIL. so close you could have just yelled a conversation between them.

I live in Hungary, I remember one summer we went to the lake Balaton with my friends to a small city, not a very significant or fancy place. There was a wine festival where we sitted next to some Italian guys. I was really surprised what they were doing there as this city is not really a tourist-known place. We were chatting and they asked me I have ever been to Italy. I was actually, to an exchange in Viterbo, also a small, not very well-known place 100 km far from Rome. They said they were from Viterbo, I could not believe it. One of the guy asked me if I wanted to see his ID, and he was really from Viterbo. :) I was amazed :)

I grew up and graduated from high school in Virginia, moved to LA when I was 27. At 31 years old I'm still in LA and I went to get an Uber..... a high school friend was the driver!

I was in Bangkok in 1999 watching The Matrix in a bar with a bunch of other foreigners from my hostel and we decided to go to an internet cafe to check our emails. A block away I realized I'd left behind a Thai magazine I'd bought at the bar and went back to get it. Passing through an alley passage under a building I ran into my neighbor from two doors away in San Francisco. We were the only people there and neither of us had known the other was in Bangkok. A few seconds difference in either of our paths and we'd have completely missed each other.

I'm from one of those low populated fly over states. Years ago I literally bumped into a classmate in a bar in the Philippines. We never had much in common and still didn't so it was " hey, nice to see you " and we both moved on after a couple of minutes.

Another big one... my parents graduated HS in 1964/1965, in the same town and school that I also graduated from (1996). In 2016 mom and I go to this little Greek place for lunch. One of the people working there (Chris) is cleaning the tables around us and we all start chatting. He's super friendly and talkative and the subject goes to kayaking. I say I've always wanted to try that. He offers to teach me, we exchange numbers, and the next week we're on the water. 3 years later, he's one of my best friends and talking w Mom and Dad, my Dad says, "I think I know his father." Now, I grew up in RI, which is tiny to begin with, so you always see people you know in the most random places. But turns out my Dad didn't know his father. BUT, my Mom and Dad hung out with Chris' grandfather and great uncle in HS. And C's grandfather was my Dad's boss for a few years. And C's Mom and sister used to babysit me and my sister when we were really little. Tiny RI, tiny world.

Weirdest thing I found out was my randomly assigned uni roommate being a second cousin. Her branch of the family didn't get along with my branch, so we found new roommates and we never spoke again.

I might have shared this one here before, but anyway. A former workmate of mine was originally from Malta and went back every few years to see her extended family. She was chatting to a waitress who said "Oh you're from Melbourne? You might know my uncle!". My workmate explained Melbourne is big and the chances of knowing the man were very slim, but when the waitress told her his name my workmate had to say "Oh. Yes, he's my hairdresser".

I grew up in one state and moved to another for 5 years and came back to home state. I'm managing a shop in a mall and one day my dentist from the other state walks in and says "What are you doing here?" Turns out he visits my home state twice a year and comes into this shop specifically every time. Another time, I was living in that other state and was at a college graduation in yet a different nearby state and ran into a girl I worked with 15+ years before in home state.

2001 we were in Germany. On a castle tour the guide asked our daughter something. After she answered a voice from behind said "Are you guys Aussie's?" After the tour we chatted for a while, also bumped into each other the next day. I felt like I knew the names but could place where from. When I spoke to family back home it turns out the that husband was my uncles best friend.

Dinner reservation at EPCOT in Florida. We see a family also waiting for a reservation at this restaurant and start to chat with them. The next day we go to Hollywood Studios. We are waiting outside the bathroom when we see the family again! But it gets even weirder, because a few days later we see them again at another dinner reservation at Universal Studios. Seeing the same family three times within a week blew my mind.

I was driving for Lyft for a short time a few years back. I picked up a passenger and of course we got stuck in LA traffic for over an hour trying to get to the airport. We're both chatty people so we struck up a conversation. Long story short, it turns out her ancestors owned mine in South Carolina a couple of hundred years ago. I was just amazed by the coincidence but she felt absolutely terrible and left a huge tip. #lyftreparations

Well, I guess everyone in Ireland is related, then...

Met a guy (he was 36, I was 34) online who was from Scotland (when I met him he was living in the US, in the town next to mine, which is near Boston, and had only been living here for a few years). We dated for about 4 months, and didn't talk after we broke up. 5 years later, my bestie and I take a month-long trip to Scotland, which included staying at a hotel (for 4 nights) that used to be a working castle. Less than a month after we get home, the Scottish ex randomly texts me. He had no idea I had just been to Scotland. We get together and get to talking and it turns out the castle we stayed in was the place where he had his first job when he was 15, and we were staying about 3 miles from the house he grew up in and where his Mom still lives.