[2] She was distantly descended from a French family named Bonpasse, from Governor Thomas Mayhew, and five Mayflower passengers: John Billington, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Stephen Hopkins, and Richard Warren – New England families which intermarried many times over.

[3] Lavinia and her younger sister Minnie Warren had a form of proportionate dwarfism, considered to be desirable by sideshows and "museums" of that era owing to its perfectly miniaturized characteristics, with the same proportions as common larger people, caused by a pituitary disorder.

After a successful career as a well-respected school teacher, which began at age 16, Lavinia went to work as a miniature dancing chanteuse upon a Mississippi showboat owned by a cousin.

The wedding reception was held at the Metropolitan Hotel, which included the couple greeting guests from atop the grand piano.

She became pregnant with a normal-sized child, but excitement was cut short by tragedy on July 23, 1878, when Minnie and her 6 pounds (2.7 kg)-baby died during birth.

Several years later on January 10, 1883, Lavinia Warren and her husband stayed at Newhall House in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the day it caught fire.

They were narrowly rescued by their friend and manager, Sylvester Bleeker, from what had been referred to as "one of the worst hotel fires in American history."

After her husband's death, Warren wanted to retire to private life, but was persuaded to continue her career.

[7] Two years after her husband's death, Warren married an Italian dwarf, Count Primo Magri.