My Family's Secret

There is something nostalgic in remodeling your family's ancestral home. I can almost hear my great great whatever grandfather speak to me about how things should be done.

I'm determined to open this house up and yet keep some of it's old world charm. Yesterday, when I was taking down the dining room wall to open it to the kitchen, I found an old leather bound journal with the initials W.J.L.

I held the journal with reverence. This was William James Lord. He was the one who built this home. Taking in a breath I sit back on the floor, opening the book with great care I find neat masculine handwriting.

My real family history the pages were yellowed with age, the leather cracked but mostly still in tact. Looking around to see if any of my crew was nearby and seeing I was alone I turned my attention toward the book and began to read.

"October 5th 1903, Today is the day that we finish our home. With in it's walls we will hide what we did. It's something we should never speak of, but must be documented. One day this home will be passed down to my son and then he shall carry the secrets and the importance of what is hidden behind these walls."

A secret? What family secret? I must keep reading. I must know what secret was passed down with the house.

"October 12th 1903, What is done is done. I'm not sure how we got into this mess, but the child is now ours and we must take great care of her. No one can know who she really is."

Now I'm really wanting to know what secret my family is hiding. I mean come on you can't leave a guy hanging here. I carefully thumb through the pages hoping beyond hope that there is something else but I find nothing else that talks of what could be hidden in these walls or the girl.

"Nooo there has to be more!!" Breathe in, breathe out. "This is fine. It's all okay. I have to open these walls anyway to up date the wiring. There has to be more hidden than my great grandfather's journal and more about who this girl is."

I continued on with the renovations and some restorations, I tried my best to forget the journal and just focus on the job at hand. Every now and then we'd find old dishes, or love letters from when my great grandfather fought in world war 2. I could almost smell the perfume that my great grandmother sprayed on the pages.

They were so much in love in those letters it brought tears to my eyes. What a legacy to have knowing that my grandparents parents truly loved one another. It was something that carried down through the generations, because everyone in family that I know of mary and are blissfully in love.

Well except for me, I'm blissfully single. I just haven't found the right one yet I suppose. Maybe after I'm done with this project I'll try to find the right woman.

Working in the upstairs bedroom I had to replace some of the hardwood flooring. Unfortunately they are so damaged I'm going to have to replace them.

It wasn't until I worked my way to the fireplace that I came across a wooden box and another black journal. This one had the initials L.M.P.L., Lana Maria Petrova Lord. My great grandmother. This was her journal.

Once more holding my breath I open an ancestor's journal to read their private thoughts. Would there be answers for me?

"September 2nd 1903, I am so afraid of what I should do. I was told to take the baby girl and run. So run I did. My new husband, an American journalist, is to take me and the child out of Russia. I can barely breathe I carry proof of the true identity of the newborn as well as who she is to be now. I named her Alice after her mother. Tsarina Alexandra named her Katheren in hopes that she would become great. Only time will tell. To make sure that my husband and I got away safely with the newborn she gave us jewels that amounted to $20,000 to make sure the newborn will have a good life. Then she gave us the Romanov family seal so that in the future if the time was right she or her descendants would be able to find their way back to them.

"September 12th 1903, We have made it to our ship safely and now we are on our way home. The Tsarina and her doctors told everyone that her pregnancy was false. What made her trust me, just a kitchen girl, with her child and her secret I will never know. I know she told me she dare not even write about this in fear that others will find out and they would try to remove Nicholas from the throne or assign him another bride while sending her a way. Maybe one day sweet Alice will find herself back in Russia and perhaps be reunited with her family. For now she is mine and I will never let her down."

This can't be right, this has to be some big cosmic joke. No way was my grandfather's aunt a grand duchess. This can't be possible, but there it is written in my great grandmother's journal. Of all the secrets in all the world this was not one that I could have ever guessed.

I bring out the wooden box and carefully open it. Inside were photos of my great grandmother with the Tsarina and a newborn baby girl. There was also a royal seal. The Romanov royal seal.

Now I'll admit I'm not all that familiar with Russian history, so a trip to the library is now in order to get more information on the royal family. Normally I go to the library to research the history of a property I'm interested in. Now I need to make sure that my family wasn't mad.

I mean I can see adopting a girl but a Grand Duchess. Well that's a bit much. The moment I step into the library I feel as if I'm in my home away from home. It doesn't take me long to find some books to start myself out with.

Going through the Romanov's history is fascinating and heartbreaking. To find out what happened to them and the mystery behind it, these tales no one could make up, but I still feel like the story isn't told in its entirety. However it does seem like Tsarina Alexandra did have a phantom pregnancy. There were rumors that there was a child and it had been a girl. Well it would seem that the rumors were true. There was a plot in place to remove Alexandra from power and lock her up in a convent.

So my great grandparents were telling the truth. My cousins are from the line of Tsar Nicholas the second. This is just mind blowing. Now is not the time for this secret to be let out. No perhaps in time but for now I am now my family's secret keeper.