When Caroline Hjelt was hired by Radisson Grand Hyatt Washington, one of the first things she did was check the Nationality of each of the couples’ partners. She looked at their passports and, upon finding that both partners were US citizens, they immediately married each other. Hjelt then found out that her own marriage had Nationality issues, so she used her knowledge of how to check the Nationality of the people in her office to help her client and her soon to be husband settle down into a life of marriage and family. In this sense, the book accomplishes its purpose.
The next part of the book describes how the couple’s Nationality was determined. Using historical records, Caroline Hjelt cross-checked the birth records for each of the couple’s nationalities and discovered, “Despite discrepancies in date and birthplaces, virtually all of them had been born in distinctly American centric states.” From the birth records, Hjelt looked at whether the partners were of the same height, of the same stature, and of the same gender. Both of them were. Hjelt then went on to detail how the height difference arose. For example, if one partner was taller than the other because of some medical reason, or had been afflicted with an illness that made them short, there might have been an adjustment made in the records.
After describing all of this, Hjeltshed concludes her history of marriage and height difference, making some recommendations about how others can deal with height difference issues. She also offers words of encouragement about how to keep your marriage intact when you find out that one of the partners is not your own biological offspring. Finally, Hjeltshed has some advice for those wishing to get married in the future. These include looking into whether or not your country has any legal precedents regarding marriage between people of different nationalities.