Cemetery Serendipities

TWO GRAVES, BALGAY CEMETERY, DUNDEE, SCOTLAND

I frequently find graveyards and cemeteries become the focal point of a coincidence. One which was for me personally most pleasing was just too incredible to believe.

My wife, Sylvia, was born in Nigeria to missionary parents from South Africa. I was born in South Africa. We met in the late 1960s. I had moved into the YMCA in Johannesburg. Sylvia had returned to South Africa and moved into the YWCA across the road. We married a few years later. She was an Adam and I was a Garvie. It was some years later that I first became interested in my genealogy but never gave her's much attention. I had traced my pedigree back to my second greatgrandfather John Garvie who died in Dundee, Scotland 21 May 1898. His grave is in the Balgay Cemetery (D662). In 2004 we travelled to Scotland from South Africa and visited his grave.

I knew Sylvia's Adam line also went back to Scotland but we didn't have much information other than that the family was from Montrose near Aberdeen. On returning to South Africa we delved deeper and to our amazement discovered that Sylvia's second greatgrandmother, Elizabeth Fawns was also buried in the Balgay Cemetery (A36)! She passed away the 23 Jun 1903.

John Garvie (c1819-1898) and Elizabeth Fawns (1823-1903) were contemporaries. They both came from blacksmith families living and working in Dundee. Elizabeth Fawns married Alexander Adam, Sylvia's second greatgrandfather whose grave we have yet to locate. We were so amazed by this strange coincidence that two people born in two different parts of the world would be drawn together, fall in love, and discover common origins in Scotland that we visited Balgay in 2008 again to see the two graves!

Our destinies seem to be mysteriously and inexplicably intertwined.