The Two Natalie Cherryholme(s)

When you're a genealogical researcher, you sometimes stumble onto some very curious finds.

To be sure, I've come across many in the years of my digging into my family tree.

But a few weeks ago, I was searching a new resource and was stunned when a 1978 birth appeared in response to my query for Cherryholme birth records.

What was so surprising about the entry?

Well, the birth had occurred in Portsmouth, England, in the 2nd Quarter of 1978, and the child -- who was born a Cherryholme -- was named Natalie Cheryl.  The indexed record indicated that the mother's maiden name was Cannon.

Now, this fact in and of itself is not so shocking.

Except that my little chickadee -- born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in 1975 -- is named Natalie Cheryl Joanne Cherryholme.

Imagine the odds of having someone in the world share your first and second name?

And your last name?

When that family name is rare indeed?

Well, I had to find out who this other Natalie was and how she fit into my family tree (just how close a relation is she, anyway?)

It didn't take me long to track her.

A simple request for the Cherryholme/Cannon marriage indicated that her father's name was Gary -- and I already had him on my tree (remember, I had extracted every instance of the name Cherryholme that I had found when, many years earlier, I had trolled the records at the Family History Centre).

So I knew the other Natalie's lineage.

My little chickadee, Natalie Cheryl Joanne Cherryholme (she was, after all, the original one) and the other Natalie Cheryl were born three years apart, one in Canada, the other in England.  And they share more than three names.

They are seventh cousins!

Their common ancestors were their 6th great grandparents, John Cherryholme and Jane Hill.

Now I have no idea why Gary and Linda (nee Cannon) named their daughter Natalie Cheryl, but it just blows my mind that they did.

Naturally, I know full well why my little chickadee has the names that she carries:

• Natalie because she was a child of Christmas (she was born in August but had been conceived in the month of the Yuletide).
• Cheryl because her father wanted me to name her after me, but  I refused to put Bonnie in her name.  Cheryl was a pet name he called me (I soooo hated my given names, I used to pretend that my name was Cheryl).  So to appease my child's father, I inserted Cheryl in her name.
• Joanne because it means "God's gracious gift," which she truly was (and continues to be).

Discoveries like this continue to intrigue me as I plough through the many records still to explore that contain the secrets of my family tree.