The Hempstock family appears in a novel by the same author (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) and is presented with supernatural abilities and a presumably long lifespan (the grandmother is the same age as the moon, if my memory serves me right).
Do you think it's just a coincidence, a nod to the original, or nothing at all? Am I just imagining things
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It's just Gaiman reusing his own narrative ideas and elements. They're not connected, since they're different universes but the idea may be similar or straight up the same. For example, in American Gods he reused The Sandman idea that gods change their area of worship or adapts to other sectors to seek some form of faith so they don't die forgotten.
I haven't finished American Gods and since I'm not American I have a little trouble picturing myself in the small towns described in it.
Yes, there are recurring elements, it's just that I found the whole thing quite funny.
The Hempstocks are connected and can cross universes.
See also – The Graveyard Book.
Again, they're not officially connected. It's just Gaiman reusing his own ideas for characters and narrative elements. They're not the same character as in "oh they were in The Sandman, they killed Morpheus", they're the same character as in "they share the same characterization and mythos" (as it is written in the article you linked). For example, Odin from American Gods is Odin, yeah, but not the same character that's in The Sandman. Although there are no contradictions between the two iterations, as they are fully based on the Odin from the norse mythology, they're still not really the Odin from the norse mythology but Gaiman's idea of that mythological figure he reused in two different works. Without mentioning the "canon", obviously: simply American Gods, TOATEOTL, Graveyard Book are not part of DC Comics and DC canon. And that's it. Not saying you can't travel with your imagination and connect things from different media and universes if you like, but the fact is just that, literary, editorially and fictionally.
I didn't say they were the same character. I said they were connected. Gaiman himself has said this.