From Provence to the Rhine: MyHeritage Helped Me Discover the Two Sides of Myself

For most of my 82 years, I believed I understood exactly who I was. I am exuberant, sociable, a little bohemian — unmistakably “Latin.” My father’s family is rooted in Marseille and Provence, and my dark hair and Mediterranean features seem to confirm that heritage without question.

Mireille Brunel as a toddler

And yet, alongside that warmth, there has always been another side to me. A love of rigor and discipline. A need for order. A perfectionist’s eye for quality. I never quite knew where that part came from… until my family tree quietly began to answer for me.

Following a line I hadn’t expected

I turned to MyHeritage with no grand ambitions. I simply wanted to complete my family tree on my mother’s side, filling in a few missing names. As I worked my way back, I reached my maternal grandmother, who was from Alsace — a place where French and German influences live side by side, where surnames, accents, and traditions often cross languages.

Mireille’s maternal grandparents

Then the trail continued.

Her mother was from Germany.

There were no family archives or preserved documents to guide me. Instead, the discoveries arrived gradually through MyHeritage’s Smart Matches™: suggestions to review, connections made by others. One name led to another. Mothers, fathers, siblings appeared. Before I fully realized it, an entire German family network had taken shape on my screen.

What I thought would be a simple exercise had opened a door.

Recognition, followed by unease

My first feeling was delight. I have always admired rigor and discipline in people, and robustness and quality in objects. I’ve been driving a Mercedes since 1985, and suddenly this long-standing preference felt less accidental. Even my ease with German in high school came back to me. Could that natural facility have been something inherited rather than learned?

Mireille driving her beloved Mercedes

But the pleasure was not without shadows.

Discovering German roots inevitably raised difficult questions about history. I wondered about the political opinions of my ancestors during the darkest years of the 20th century. Were there Nazis among them? And if so, were they followers by conviction, or by fear, like so many others? I may never have answers.

Seeing myself more clearly

As these discoveries settled, I began to reflect on my own contradictions.

Outwardly, I am cheerful, extroverted, and bohemian, very much a woman of the South. That side of me feels entirely natural, shaped by my Provençal roots. Physically, too, I resemble them: brunette, Mediterranean, unmistakably Southern.

Mireille in her 60s

Yet there is also my disciplined side. I’m organized, rigorous, and demanding of myself. I now recognize it as an inheritance from across the Rhine.

My brother seemed to carry that heritage even more visibly. Blond, fair-eyed, he was also very good at German and looked far more like a man of the North than I ever did. The same lineage, expressed differently in each of us.

Mireille and her brother Raymond as children

The past, present in small things

Some connections reveal themselves in the smallest ways. In France, egg peircers are almost unknown. In Germany, they sit proudly in every kitchen. I ordered one — made in Germany, shipped from Germany — to ensure my eggs were cooked just right.

Mireille’s German egg piercer

It’s an ordinary object, but it makes me smile. A quiet reminder that one’s heritage doesn’t always announce itself dramatically. Sometimes, it slips into daily life, shaping habits and preferences long before we know why.

Through MyHeritage, I found coherence. I now understand that I am made of more than one inheritance: the warmth of Provence and the discipline of Germany, living side by side.

At last, the two sides of myself make sense together.

Many thanks to Mireille Brunel for sharing her incredible story with us. If you have also made an amazing discovery with MyHeritage, we’d love to hear about it! Please send it to us via this form or email it to us at stories@myheritage.com.