Families Around The World – Mar 16, 2011

In this series we look at some of the more interesting family stories from around the world over the past 7 days.

Included in this week’s list are stories from Japan, The USA, Pakistan, Southern Sudan and France.

Enjoy!

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JAPAN

In light of the terrible events that have happened in Japan over the past week (and the continuing issues the country is having), it’s nice that there are stories emerging about miracle reunions between children and parents.

This story, shows one reunion between a 4-month old child and her father. As always, our thoughts are with the people of Japan during this tough time.

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THE USA

A new “oldest living person” has been declared by the Guinness Book of World Records. 114 year old Besse Cooper of Georgia was recently given the title after the previous record holder recently passed away.

What amazing stories she must have to tell!

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PAKISTAN

New diaries have been found in Pakistan that highlight the previously unknown relationship between Queen Victoria and an Indian man, Abdul Karim, who was employed to be her teacher on all things Indian.

The diaries are featured in a new book that not only highlights the very close relationship between the two, but also goes through the privileges passed onto Karim’s family as a result of his personal ties to the Queen. Fascinating.

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SOUTHERN SUDAN

Basketball Star, Luol Deng, recently did an interview about his family and his journey from troubled Sudan to the heights of one of the biggest sporting leagues in the world, the NBA.

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FRANCE

Finally, an unknown World War 1 solider, whose remains were found in France, has been identified 94 years after he was first declared missing.

The soldier, Canadian Pte. Thomas Lawless, was identified after tireless work by a number of individuals and government organisations in Canada.

Great sleuthing team!

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That’s it for this week’s Families Around the World.

If you have any amazing family stories you think our blog readers would like to hear about, feel free to put some info and a link in the comments to this post and we’ll see if we can add it to next week’s edition of FAW.