52 Ancestors: Maps: Alex Hillinger and Dora Kresch and Daniel Jones and Eliza Howells

 As soon as I saw this prompt, I immediately thought of two sets of my great-grandparents. Almost all of my great-grandparents were born outside of the US, and two of the four couples were actually born very close together.

Alex Hillinger was born in a small town called Shendeshov also known as Sedzizow Malopolski in a place that was once called Galicia, but which is now southern Poland, between Krakow and Rzezow, though much closer to Rzesow than Krakow. His family left Galicia when he was young, though I'm not sure exactly when they left. After World War I, he moved to Germany, and settled in Frankfurt

Dora Kresch was born in Czudek, also in Galicia, but now Poland. It too was fairly close to Rezezow. She lived in the town until sometime after World War I, when she and at least one if not both of her sisters moved to Frankfurt to get away from the Pograms happening in Eastern Europe.

You can see Rzezow on the far right of the map. So my great grandparents lived not even a half a day's walk away from each other. But they never met until they moved to Frankfurt after World War I.

But! They are not the only story like this as I have said.

On the other side of my family tree, my maternal great grandparents were also born very close together, but didn't meet until they traveled about halfway around the world.

Daniel Jones was born in the mining hub of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. It was a major ironworks for all the mining in the area. His parents ran the town Post office, and he lived there until he got wandering feet as a young man and went on a trip to Canada with a few friends in the early 1900s. While there, he ran into a lovely lady who gave him pause, and when he met her again after he and his friends traveled to the West Coast, he knew it was fate, and married her.

Eliza Howells was born in a small mining town called Pontypridd, Wales, just south of Merthyr Tydfil. Her father was a stonemason who worked on shoring up the mines there. However, he chose to leave the profession upon learning that it was bad for his health, so the family moved to Canada, where Eliza spent much of her youth in Winnipeg. In her early twenties, she moved to the West Coast, making hats for a living. It was there she first remembered meeting Daniel, and the two were eventually married. Daniel only returned to Wales to visit his family.

Daniel and Eliza were born even closer together. Not a whole lot, but as you can see, just a four hour plus walk again.

It's so much fun, seeing how close together they lived. The other two couples were much further apart. I know that Holger did go to where Oline's family lived once he'd met her, but that was a much longer trip, and definitely not a simple walk. And Bjarne and Mary were born continents apart. She in Philadelphia, and he in Norway. But I do find it fascinating that I have two of these kinds of stories in my family tree. I know they were common in the old country, but usually the tale is that they lived close together, so that was why they met. But not in either of these cases.

So does anyone else have stories like this in their tree?