Solving the Forbach Mystery
In 2019 a story appeared in French media of a guy claiming to have have had an encounter with the Isdal Woman in Forbach, France in 1970.
He had taken a photograph of the woman riding a horse. The photograph is here:
Her French holiday boyfriend said she spoke a strange mixture of languages that he could not recognize — they were not European languages he determined.
In 2019 I used the face of the Forbach woman with tools like Pimeyes and Betaface and found that Ann Kirkpatrick was a facial ID match.
Using my own software it shows a high landmark similarity score — ie. dimensions between facial features match:
Research on the House of Representatives Member Ann Leila Kirkpatrick shows she was a language savant. She could read/write and perhaps speak Apache, Gaelic and many European languages. The fact she was brought up from a child as a native American Apache suggests horse riding would have been a normal part of her life.
But why would she travel to Forbach?
There is a potential clue in her name Kirkpatrick, but this needs to be checked with historical data. AI proclaims:
Ann Leila Kirkpatrick’s lineage can be traced back to Ivone Kirkpatrick in Scotland, suggesting a strong connection to Southwest Scotland as early as the 12th century. Ivone Kirkpatrick was born around 1130 in Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. The Kirkpatrick family of Closeburn has held lands since the ninth century, and Ivone’s father died circa 1187.
Princess Eugenie, also known as Eugnie de Montijo, was born on May 5, 1826, in Granada, Spain. She was the youngest child and daughter of Don Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero and María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick y Grivegnée. Her mother, Manuela Kirkpatrick de Montijo, was the daughter of the Scots-born William Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, who became the United States consul to Málaga and later a wholesale wine merchant. His main claim to fame is that his granddaughter, Eugénie de Montijo, became the Empress Eugénie of France when she married Napoleon III.
There was a battle at Forbach, also known as the Battle of Spicheren, which is linked to Napoleon III.
Families often believe they are related by genealogy to a famous person. In this case the Kirkpatricks may have held strong views they were related to William Kirkpatrick of Closeburn the wine merchant who moved to Malaga in Spain and therefore was grandfather of Empress Eugénie of France who married Napolean III.
The family links to Scotland, France and Spain to the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn may explain a European trip of an American post-graduate student who was a linguistic savant who was fluent in Gaelic and Apache and possibly many other European languages after she completed her holiday trip.
You.com AI Genius mode was used to help write and research this story.
French translation (sent to original journalist) — no response ….yet:
