Thread by @raphink

Two good surprises this week!

#ancestryhour

1. I was contacted by a lady who inherited a big pile of letters from ~1889, sent to her ancestor by a teenager friend from Paris. This friend often mentions her neighbor friends in her letters: my ggfather A. Dreyfus and his family.

2. My mom found ~50 letters from 1870-1871, sent from Paris to my ancestor Adolphe Grünberg as he was away with his family during the siege of the city by the Prussians. I only saw 3 letters so far, but it's very promising content!

There are in particular some letters about the children organizing theater plays and operas, with some fun scenes.

In particular, one of the letters mentions that a family member, Charlotte Rau, had just died. So far, I had no idea when or where this lady had died, so at least now I know it was in 1870!

The letters also follow the Grünberg family in their trip, through Heidelberg, Munich, Vienna & Alexandria, so I'll be able to trace their movements in 1870/1871.

In return to the letters, I was able to send this lady pictures of the children, incl a 1886 pic of 10 children (6 my family + 4 cousins also mentioned in the letters)

The letters seem to be written by a servant of the family who stayed behind to oversee the house. I'll have to identify him better...

She was delighted to get details on the children described in the letters, and will send me more when she scans them! 😁

Among other things, the children liked playing "L'Abbé Constantin", a piece adapted for the theater in 1887 from a 1882 novel. Two movies were (much) later made, in 1925 and 1933.

Update: I received two letters from 1896 and 1899 by mail this week 😁

The former is a card from my g-great-aunt to announce a birth, the latter is a letter of condolences from my g-great-grandmother after the death of a child.

Still haven't been able to see the letters, COVID-19 having delayed/cancelled our trip to France 😬