TORONTO — If Canadian actress Jessica Paré needed inspiration to play the sultry, independent Megan Draper on the TV series Mad Men, she only had to look at her family tree.
There, Paré would find her great-great-grandmother Lucy Armstrong posing for a photograph in a fitted corset with a plunging neckline that was risqué for its time.
Armstrong’s marriage more than a century ago also caused a stir.
According to ancestry.ca, Lucy Armstrong married Edward Griffith in Australia in 1887.
The genealogy website says Edward’s mother Hannah had her sights set on another woman for her son — one more fitting of his social status.
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Hannah was so angry about her son’s choice of bride that she took out an advertisement in a local newspaper.
“A certain Mrs. E. A. Griffith is going around town claiming to be a daughter-in-law of mine,” read the message.
“This is to advise that she is no relation of mine whatsoever.”
Edward and Lucy became parents to twins and their daughter, also named Lucy, would later move to Canada and marry Alphonse Paré.
Jessica, the daughter of Anthony Paré (the great-grandson of Alphonse) and Louise Mercier, was born in Montreal.
On Mad Men, the 33-year-old plays the former secretary at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce who became the second wife of Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm.
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