Sometimes when people are getting started in genealogy, they don’t think about the possibility that relatives can turn up in places where they aren’t expected. One very famous American lady was an immigrant from France, born in the 1880s. My family recently paid a visit to her slightly younger sister, who still lives in Paris.
The family resemblance is striking, something genealogists often look for in old family photographs. She isn’t nearly as tall as her sister and unlike her sister’s tablet, which reads “July 4, 1776,” hers reads “IV Juillet 1776 = XIV Juillet 1789” to commemorate both the American and French Revolutions, and the connections between them.
It all goes to show, that you never know where relatives might turn up and knowing a bit of history can give you hints about how and why a family might be more spread than you might otherwise expect.
So, Happy 4th and 14th of July!