SYNCHRONICITY

I’ve been searching the web for information on the men who are
mentioned on the Ames petition and ran into one of those cases
of synchronicity that makes genealogy fun.

Many of the early settlers of Norridgewock, Maine came from
Groton, Mass. I found some lists and besides the names I was
looking for I found John Laughton. Now I have three John
Laughtons among my ancestors, and a quick look at their sheets
told me that the John Laughton on the list was the first of them,
who is my 6x great grandfather. His great great granddaughter
Louisa Almata Richardson married Jonathan Phelps West.
His mother was Arvilla Ames.


I know it’s not all that uncommon for these coincidences to pop
up given the size of the population in Maine in that era but still
it tickles me to think John Laughton and John Ames might have
known each other.


What would they have thought if they knew their descendants
would marry?

Gee, I hope they liked each other!