Coloring My Roots: The (Partially) True History of My Family Tree and How I Became Who I Am
an excerpt

La Ville d'Archangel had departed St.-Malo on August 12, 1785, but the family had not left from there; they had embarked at Nantes, after having gone to gather up their step-father's widowed mother Marguerite. Their step-father was heard to say (when he thought the children were not listening) that he would not abandon his mother to "the coming terror." Whatever that meant. At the moment, Angelique could not think anything would be more terrible than the ship they were on. The rations were getting smaller and smaller, and she could no longer recall a time when she wasn't hungry. But then, whenever she did eat, she felt sick, and only kept herself from expelling her food by meditating on the fact that she wasn't sure when she might eat next.

Marie-Jeanne was worried, and said as much to Jean-Louis, who was 11 and heir to the family name. Indeed, his sisters had come to the conclusion that Louis (as they called him) was truly head of the family now, since their mother had remarried and taken another name, one that was not theirs. No, the siblings had decided that it was the three of them now against the world. They would none of them have left France if they'd had the power to refuse.