A Coincidence! Or is it!

Amongst the many ordinary business papers left by my grandfather are estimates from contractors, bills, and receipts, starting in about 1908. The actual letters are uninteresting; but this was the heyday fabulous business stationery, and a perfectly ordinary feed bill for a team of draft horses looked like this:

For many years, my grandfather, Will Carpenter, had threshing business with two of his brothers. When they first began, the big threshing machines were drawn by teams of draft animals. (Later, of course, they were replaced by motor vehicles.) My grandfather loved animals, so I'm sure their team was well-cared for.

Oddly enough, after quite a lot of investigation of the Swedish archives available online, I was able to discover that my 3x great grandfather in Sweden, ran a trucking business -- well, sort of trucking; he too used a  team of draft horses and a sturdy wagon for all kinds of haulage, from furniture deliveries to carrying livestock or produce to market.

And another great-grandfather owned a foundry in Mora, Sweden,and one of their biggest products was... threshing machines!

Now, I don't think my grandmother knew this about her grandfather's business , and I'm sure my father didn't. So it was pure coincidence that two descendants of expert team-drivers (because it was a recognized skill) with a special relationship to threshing machines from different continents met and married in the U.S.