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<\/a>Grandpa Sparrow<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n The story starts with my paternal grandfather<\/strong>, who died before I was born.\u00a0 He was a straight-laced, sober-sided man who was born to English immigrants.\u00a0 The best illustration of his “Englishness” is a story my grandmother loved to tell of the first time her brothers asked my grandfather to go fishing.\u00a0 He rose early in the morning and ducked into the bathroom to get dressed.\u00a0 When he emerged, he had on a suit, tie and vest<\/strong>!\u00a0 My grandmother burst out laughing but my grandfather failed to see the humor.\u00a0 Anyway, as stuffy as he was, he was a bit of a family outcast from the beginning because he had been divorced prior to meeting my grandmother.\u00a0 That fact was never a secret, in\u00a0 fact, I remember my grandmother telling me about it when I was a little girl.\u00a0 But what she failed to mention – and what I eventually found out in my family history research – is that he had a daughter, Beverly,<\/strong> with his first wife, Corinne.\u00a0 I discovered Beverly’s existence in 2011.\u00a0 By then, my dad had died but I asked my mother if she knew anything about dad having a half-sister.\u00a0 She casually said, “Yes, he knew about her but never met her.” WOW!\u00a0 They were born just five years apart and lived within 20 miles of each other for most of their childhood, but my grandfather never introduced them to each other.<\/p>\n Passengers in lifeboats on USS Washington<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n I set out to learn more about Beverly but was never able to gather much information.\u00a0 This week Ancestry sent me a hint about her and before I knew it, I was deep into researching my elusive aunt.\u00a0 I could tell from census records that she grew up in San Francisco<\/strong>.\u00a0 But after the 1920 census there is no further documentation on her until 1940.\u00a0 But that document is a wowzah.\u00a0 At some point after 1920, Beverly and Corinne moved to France, where Corinne’s grandmother lived.\u00a0 They lived in peace until World War II broke out.\u00a0 On June 1, 1940, with Hitler bearing down on France, the U.S. State Department issued a warning that all American citizens who wished to flee France<\/strong> would need to board the\u00a0 U.S.S. Washington <\/em>in Le Havre or remain in place for the duration of the war.\u00a0 It was the last civilian ship to leave Europe.\u00a0 On June 8, 1940, Corinne and Beverly boarded the Washington,\u00a0<\/em>bound for New York.\u00a0 Their timing was exquisite; just six days later the Germans invaded Paris.\u00a0 But as it turned out, they were not yet out of danger.\u00a0 Three days out of Le Havre the Washington<\/em> was stopped by a German submarine<\/strong>.\u00a0 The Germans signaled that the Washington<\/em> had 10 minutes to abandon ship before it would be blown up.\u00a0 The crew sounded the alarm and the 1787 refugees scrambled into lifeboats.\u00a0 After some skillful negotiation, the Germans eventually signaled the Washington<\/em> to continue on.\u00a0 The captain surmised that the vision of all those civilians in lifeboats gave the German captain pause.\u00a0 In any event, on June 21, 1940 Corinne and Beverly landed back in the United States.<\/p>\n The trail of Beverly’s life went dark<\/strong> until 1946, when a Pan Am manifest shows her passage from Bermuda to New York and lists her profession as “actress”.\u00a0 I searched records for actresses by her name but came up empty. How or why she was in Bermuda to begin with is a mystery.\u00a0 Then in 1949 she left New York for Ecuador, only to return the next year, this time with a fianc\u00e9 in tow.\u00a0 \u00a0She married Louis de Reiset, a French citizen <\/strong>living in Ecuador, in 1950 in New York.\u00a0 The mind boggles at what a Frenchman was doing in Ecuador or how Beverly met him.\u00a0 Was it a long lost love from her time in Paris?\u00a0 Was he a German collaborator during the war that used one of the ratlines<\/strong> to get to South America?\u00a0 This is the stuff of novels…or my overactive imagination.<\/p>\n Beverly’s last immigration form<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n There are no records on Beverly and Louis until 1956, where the log of the S.S. Liberte\u00a0<\/em>indicates they traveled from France to New York<\/strong> City<\/strong>.\u00a0 Again, there is a long period of silence but I think there was trouble in paradise because her next record is an immigration form from 1961 when she entered Florida from Ecuador<\/strong>.\u00a0 By then, Corinne had moved to Winter Park and it appears from phone book listings that Beverly moved in with her.\u00a0 In 1963, Beverly filed for divorce from Louis<\/strong> in Florida and she remained there for the rest of her life.\u00a0 \u00a0Louis died in Ecuador in 1996.<\/p>\n Beverly died in 2001, ironically, the same year my dad died.\u00a0 There are no photos of her<\/strong> that I can find, including in her obituary.\u00a0 But her parting shot did provide a new dimension to her personality.\u00a0 Her obituary in the Orlando Sentinel,<\/em> read in part:<\/p>\n BEVERLY S. de REISET, 92, Lakemont Avenue, Winter Park, died Friday, July 27. Countess de Reiset was a member of French nobility. She was an actress and real-estate agent. Born in San Francisco, she moved to Central Florida in 1959. She was a member of Town Club.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n WHAT?\u00a0 A countess?\u00a0 A member of French nobility?<\/strong>\u00a0 Her dad was born in New Jersey and her mother in Missouri.\u00a0 Sure, she had a great-grandmother in France, but a quick search of the noble names of France does not include her family name.\u00a0 Who knows? Maybe it goes back generations.\u00a0 What is astounding is that Beverly styled herself as nobility<\/strong> when it was clearly a distinction tied to her short-lived marriage to Louis.\u00a0 Regardless, I have an image of her swanning through the Town Club, asking everyone to address her as “Countess”.<\/p>\n I wish that I had met Beverly.\u00a0 I’m thinking a visit with her over a few martinis<\/strong> would yield some really good stories.\u00a0 All I know is, Ancestry is definitely worth the price.\u00a0 Where else can you find this level of intrigue for twenty bucks?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson As our regular subscribers know, I am our family’s historian.\u00a0 I joined Ancestry.com ten years ago and was instantly hooked.\u00a0 I’ve always loved studying history; I find the personal stories of the famous and not-so-famous are … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/USS-WAshington-300x175.jpg\")
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