Humans of Chapelboro: Rediscovering long-lost family

This week’s “Humans of Chapelboro” continues the story of Ruth Ann and George Groh. Read part 1 here and part 2 here. 

Ruth Ann: We had one more piece of evidence with us–an old postcard that Emile Jung had sent to his daughter. It showed a tiny place called Sparsbrod, and a building that was a restaurant. We walked into Sparsbrod, and lo and behold, we recognized the same building that was pictured on this 1925 postcard!

George: It was an old black and white faded postcard. It wasn’t a restaurant any more, but all the lines and gables and the front steps of the house were the same. We said, this is it!

RA: We clearly recognized it. So we stopped to take a picture, and people came out of the house. It was a nice Sunday morning and people were around. In our limited French, we started to explain why we were taking a picture of this house. One of the women called to her husband, and he came out, and happily, he spoke English. Then we could get lots of things clear, as to who we were and who we were related to. And he said, oh, the people across the street are related to the Jung family, who still lives nearby.

G: There weren’t a lot of tourists then- it’s not a part of France that’s full of tourists, so we were a little unusual, these people standing around taking pictures.

RA: So then the man talked to the people across the street, and more and more people came out of the house across the street and got quite excited. I still remember, there was an older woman talking on a cordless phone in the yard, and she was getting more and more excited. Then they started saying, “oh, the woman in the Jung family is expecting you, you have to go there!” So we agreed, but we were on foot and we didn’t know how to get there. Finally, someone said they would take us in their car. So we got in the car with this stranger, hoping for the best. I remember in the car, thinking, what have we done now? We’re going to meet this stranger, [this woman in the Jung family], and we’re going to be related to her, but how? and what if it’s not true? What if we don’t like her?

G: What if she doesn’t like us?

RA: How is this all going to turn out? So we got to the house and the nice man let us out, and this woman in her eighties came out on an upstairs deck, and we took one look at her and we said, “Oh, surely, that is a relative! She bears a striking resemblance to [Rosalie’s sister] Aunt Margaret!” The woman was George’s mother’s first cousin, Berthe Noël. She invited us in and welcomed us, and we had to communicate in our limited French. We’re sitting around her dining room table when three more people appear at the door and come in. She had called them up. Happily, it was her daughter-in-law Mariette, and her two granddaughters, Sylvie and Françoise, who were fluent in English. So then we were all set. We could explain who we were, why we were there, and we could find out the history of Emile Jung and why he left and that he had two brothers who had also emigrated to the United States. They left because they had been called up to be in the Prussian army, because that part of France was then under Prussian [German] control. They identified as French and did not want to serve in the Prussian army. They left, which was a common thing for [people], particularly men, who identified as French, to leave.

G: Up until then [1992], we didn’t know that these people, the Noëls, existed, and they didn’t know that we existed. It’s now 25 years ago.

RA: The next day, Berthe’s son René [Mariette’s husband] and Sylvie [one of their daughters] found our boat and invited us to come to their house for lunch. René had been away the previous day at a beekeeper’s meeting. We accepted.

G: We didn’t know what lunch meant. Lunch means one thing to us…

RA: (laughs) We had no idea what we were in for. We arrived at their house and were welcomed, and we sat down. René had prepared a lovely multi-colored chart of the ancestry and all the brothers, which we still have. They gave us a little glass of homemade plum brandy. Then we sat down for lunch, as we expected. We had this delicious dish, and when they offered us seconds, we accepted, thinking that was the entire lunch.

G: That was just the appetizer.

RA: There was a full meal after that. It was like an American Thanksgiving feast. It was a lovely and very exciting time.

G: We went back to visit again, and rented boats on other canals.

The Grohs and the Noëls have remained in touch throughout the years. Both sides of the family have children and grandchildren who enjoy visiting one another.

Photos taken by Aleta Donald. Stay tuned next week for a new Humans of Chapelboro.