A Family (Re)Union

When I first met Judge Koeltl in Holland last year, he remarked on how he knew someone with the same surname as me; Doug Connah, a lawyer from Baltimore. He put us in touch and I ended up exchanging a few emails with his brother, Jim, on the history of the 'Connah' surname as known to both of us. When I recently visited Judge Koeltl in New York though he went one better, and suggested that I get in touch with Doug to try and arrange a meeting given that Baltimore and DC aren't that far apart. On Thursday, that's exactly what happened.


I took the afternoon off from interning to go to lunch with Dough before taking him on a tour of the Capitol building. It was slightly surreal to hear someone else saying 'Connah' at the restaurant, but it was great to meet him especially given the shared career path.

Over lunch Doug showed me copies of the research he's done into the history of the family. He had some great photos of his ancestors and even some newspaper clippings on the history of Connah's Quay in Wales which I visited just under a year ago. What he had certainly tallied with the little that I've managed to piece together and it's spurred me on to wanting to do some more research of my own once I'm in London come September.

I still find it amazing that a meeting like this can be arranged to so easily. Not that many years ago surely it would have been almost impossible. But it owed it's happening to so many coincidences down the line; from my going to Utrecht, to meeting Judge Koeltl, to him recognising my surname, to my interning in DC and to Doug getting back from his European jazz-band trip in time to come down to DC before I leave. It really makes me wonder just what'll come about in the next few years that I can't even begin to imagine at the moment.

Just to further the small world talk, a couple of years ago when Facebook was in its infancy there was only me and someone called Beth on Facebook with the 'Connah' surname. Out of curiosity I got in touch and we've stayed in sporadic contact over the past couple of years. I mentioned a group I set up on Facebook for people with the surname to Doug and mentioned Beth in connection with it only for him to realise that Beth was his niece! Of all the small world coincidences that surely has to be one of the best I've been a party too. Given the scarcity of the surname, and the fact that the two people outside of my immediate family that I know with the same surname are themselves related, surely there's a good chance that somewhere down the line there is a relational link? It would be nice to think so.