Alexandra Ghika of Romania: The Lost Princess and Her Chicago Roots

By Jacqueline P. Passey

About the Book
Alexandra Ghika of Romania: The Lost Princess and Her Chicago Roots is the fascinating history of Princess Alexandra Ghika of Romania, who gave up her royal life and fled her country during WWII in order to save her children.
About the Author
Jacqueline P. Passey had a varied career. Her most successful venture was being a mother raising 6 children. She was married to a national recognized clinical chemist. Jackie is an adventurer who loves spelunking. She is a skilled baker and a better genealogist. Jackie caught the genealogy bug when she was 13 and has never recovered. She has enjoyed helping others learn to love genealogy by directing two genealogy libraries. She taught genealogy on two college campuses in Oklahoma, Rose State College and The Downtown College Consortium. She has lectured for many different genealogy conferences and the Scottish festival in Salado Texas. She has authored 11 books on several different family members. She’s considered the main author of a book about the Schweppenhauser/heiser family in the Philadelphia historical society library.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: Oct 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886049398

Book preview

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The contents of this work, including, but not limited to, the accuracy of events, people, and places depicted; opinions expressed; permission to use previously published materials included; and any advice given or actions advocated are solely the responsibility of the author, who assumes all liability for said work and indemnifies the publisher against any claims stemming from publication of the work.

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2023 by Jacqueline P. Passey

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, downloaded, distributed, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without permission in writing from the publisher.

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eISBN: 979-8-8860-4939-8

The Lost Princess

Alexandra Ghika

of Romania

and Her Chicago Roots

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR JACQUELINE P. PASSEY

Jacqueline P. Passey has been a director two different times of an LDS Family History Center. She was in charge one time in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and once in Fishers, Indiana. She has taught genealogy classes on two college campuses in Oklahoma. Writing books has become a passion of hers, and she has self-published ten books on different families which she has donated to different historical societies and libraries. She has given many seminars in different areas on how to research genealogy.

One of her proudest accomplishments is to have directed the genealogy seminars for the Central Texas Area Museum in Salado, Texas. She hosted these events at their Scottish festivals for five years. If it were not for the modern internet, she could not have put together the history Princess Alexandria Ghika and her family.

It has taken several trips to Chicago, Illinois, to search courthouse records, a cemetery, and the wonderful Newberry Library’s collection. The Canadian archives were efficient in sending a wonderful collection of Paul-Louis Weiller’s correspondence with family, friends, and lawyers. It also took one trip to California for pictures, and more courthouse records.

Her heartfelt gratitude goes out to her wonderful granddaughter, Ashleigh Rogers, who increased her computer abilities, edited, and added pictures. Also, she wants to thank her wonderful husband, Dr. Richard B. Passey, who helped when Ashleigh left for college.

This history is not complete, but here is more information than what has been published before. She sincerely hopes that her audience finds the following information as fascinating as she did.

Jacqueline P. Passey would like to dedicate this book to the family of

Princess Alexandra Ghika.

May her story never be lost to this world again.

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Princess Alexandra Ghika on the steps of Villa Primavera in Cannes, France

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Princess Alexandra Ghika’s tombstone at the Pala Mission

San Diego, County, California

Photo taken by Jacqueline Passey, 2014

Where in the World is Romania?

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Map of Cenral Europe

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Map of Romania

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Un-romania.png

Coat of Arms of the Ghica family

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghica_family

Chapter One

How I Became Interested in the History of

Princess Alexandra Ghika

My name is Jacqueline (Jackie) P. Passey. It was my pleasure as a young child to live in the small town of Fallbrook, California. Our first home in Fallbrook was on the banks of the Santa Margarita River. My father had purchased a dairy, taking us out of Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles County, to the quiet, free roaming countryside of Fallbrook. Our parents worked very hard, but as children, we were able to play in the shallow waters of the river and picnic on large rocks that lined the bank.

We eventually moved across town to a larger piece of property that had orange, lemon, and grapefruit groves. The larger acreage on the other side of town was partly ours, but we rented a house on the property that belonged to a Mr. Pratt. We sold some of our milk to the Challenge Dairy in San Diego, and my father started a milk route in Fallbrook. He named his new business The Running Brook Dairy. I still have a couple of the milk bottles used to deliver milk that have Running Brook Dairy embossed on them.

Besides our parents, Les and Bernice, there were three children. The oldest was Sally, next was John, and I, Jacqueline, am the youngest. Our Father had worked in the aircraft industry in the Los Angeles area before World War II. During the war, he had a top-secret security clearance and worked for Boeing in Wichita, Kansas. Dad spent a great deal of time away from home and let us spend summers with his Mother and Aunt in Modesto, California. During the school months, we lived in Playa Del Rey. Even from a distance, war was horrible. I remember the blackouts at night and rumbles of fear that we may be attacked living near the beach in Southern California.

When peace finally arrived, and the war was over, Dad’s wish was for a peaceful area for himself and his family. He was offered a vice presidency with Mitchell Camera, a division of Kodak that was involved in the movie industry. We would have had to live in either Hollywood or Belle Air, but Dad said no to the offer. He did not want his children raised in that environment.

Neither my Father nor my Mother had ever lived on a farm. My father had worked for a dairyman in Modesto, California, while attending high school, so he knew a little bit about the business. My parents undertook a grand adventure in Fallbrook. They purchased a dairy. In spite of the total peacefulness of the area, Dad had to work very hard, taking care of a family of cows, dumped off dogs and cats at the dairy, and one mean bull, plus, as I have mentioned, he started delivering milk to people’s homes. Mother also worked as a nurse at the tiny hospital in town and made many friends.

We attended public school, where Sally made friends with a girl whose mother was a Romanian Princess. I was too young to be impressed with the fact that Sally’s friend had a genuine Princess for a mother. This was before Disneyland and our current familiarity with castles. Once when the daughter spent the night with my sister, the Princess invited me to spend the night at her house. I was happy to go and enjoyed my visit. The Princess was very kind and patient with me. I remember that the house had many windows and was light and bright. There was a wrought iron, curved staircase that led to the second floor. The Princess and her husband owned large groves of avocados and citrus. They were kept busy caring for their crops.

We moved away from Fallbrook to the State of Washington in the summer of 1948. The Princess eventually put her girls in a private Catholic school. We lost touch with the family but always held fond memories.

I am over 70 now, and a year ago at my grandson’s birthday party, I noticed a thick accent from one of the guests. I asked what his country of origin was, and he told me Romania.

I responded with, Oh, I have a fun story for you.

Not only was the gentleman interested, but it also lit a fire in him.

What was her name? Are you sure that she was a real Princess? His questioning was intense. We got on the internet and started researching. One thing led to another, and with the help of my new friend, the internet, and my cousin, who now lives in Fallbrook, we have been able to put together some of Princess Alexandra Ghika’s history.

Shortly before my sister died, we had a conversation about the Princess. Sally knew that she had died and was buried in the Pala Mission cemetery. She also thought that one of her daughters lived in Monterrey, Mexico. We had very little other information on what had become of her family.

Princess Alexandra Ghika fled Paris shortly before the German invasion of that city. She went first to New York City, then to Mexico City, next to Los Angeles, and then to Fallbrook, California. She died there. I remember her as a lovely lady. I didn’t remember her girls, but my sister Sally did.

My new friend, the gentleman I met at my grandson’s party, John Stanciu, has a brother who still lives in Romania. They discovered that, due to the Russians taking over after WWII, the Romanian government had lost all knowledge of their Princess. We returned part of her story to the Romanian National Archives. Princess Alexandra Ghika deserves to be remembered and more of her story told.

Henry Wordsworth wrote a poem called Imitations of Immortality. I quote: