The Scottish Ayson Clan has about 2000 New Zealand descendants, and its own society, the Clan Ayson Society, and holds reunions quite often, including one this Easter weekend in Dunedin.
Over the years, their gatherings have also been held elsewhere in the country.
The Harraway family, descended from English ancestors in Wiltshire, near Stonehenge, is a smaller grouping, and over the weekend held only its third reunion in this country.
Carol Ball (nee Harraway), of Christchurch, is a member of both the Ayson Clan and the Harraway family - her father Walter Harraway and Joanna Harraway (nee Ayson) having brought the families together through marriage in 1939.
Last year, Mrs Ball, who is the Canterbury-West Coast area manager at the New Zealand Red Cross, was helping to organise the Harraways' latest reunion.
An earlier reunion had been held at Green Island, where the Harraway and Sons flour mill, still running as a mill, had earlier been established.
It was only when she was booking the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, Dunedin, as a venue that she was surprised to discover the Aysons were not only holding a reunion at exactly the same time, but also in the same city and same museum.
The recently redeveloped museum could accommodate both reunions, with the Harraways using a fully-restored upstairs hall.
The unusual coincidence was ''really remarkable'' and she was delighted to have been able to meet relatives from both sides of the family.
''I think it's fantastic and wish we could do it more often.''
About 45 members of the Harraway family, including five with shared Harraway and Ayson connections, attended.
Dunedin author and environmentalist Neville Peat said it was a ''great feeling'' for the more than 100 members of the Ayson Clan to meet again at the reunion, which celebrated the 160th anniversary of the arrival of the Aysons from Scotland.
A busy conference programme included a family bus trip to Taiaroa Head on Saturday.
Peter Ayson, his wife Douglas, of Glenshee, in the Perthshire highlands, and 10 children arrived in Dunedin aboard the sailing ship Royal Albert in March 1853, later becoming early farmer settlers near Balclutha.
