[2][4] When they met P. T. Barnum they were living in Amsterdam and they moved to New York in 1858 to appear in his museum as one of the original "exhibitions.

"[2][5] Barnum claimed, in an 1860 pamphlet called The History of Rudolph Lucasie, that the family was from Madagascar and were "white Negroes" who had parents of African descent.

[8][9] Mary Brett has written that there was a second child with albinism, one who was female, who would perform with them to "increase the appeal of the act" but that she was unrelated.

Barnum called them "disagreeable" and threatened their manager, Dr. Oscar Kohn, that he would "put them in jail" if things did not improve.

[5] By 1883 a St. Louis, Missouri directory showed Joseph Lucasie living with Landon Middlecoff, a giant who was also a sideshow performer.