How can anyone write a blog post today without mentioning Downton Abbey the PBS show that has a vast swath of Americans waiting impatiently for its Fourth Season debut tonight? For weeks, media outlets have offered tantalizing glimpses of what is in store for Lord Grantham, Lady Cora and their family, friends and staff. Mary, the newly widowed eldest daughter, seems to be the focus of the new season, but others in the show have more unusual roles and play more historically resonant characters.

Lady Cora joins the ranks of the real-life American heiresses who married British aristocrats during the tail end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Like Winston Churchill’s mother, Jennie Jerome Churchill, Lady Cora represents the marriage of American wealth with British titles. The privileged lives of the upstairs contingent of the Downton Abbey cast are puritanical compared with the scandalous behavior of the real life counterparts of Edwardian aristocrats. Jennie

Churchill was reported to have had many lovers, but that didn’t prevent her from playing a central role in aristocratic society. And unlike Lady Cora, Lady Churchill did not appear to be very involved in the upbringing or lives of her children. As a child Winston Churchill seldom saw his mother who relied on nannies and servants to care for her children. Compared with the Churchills, the Grantham family seems middle-class; they are almost modern helicopter parents, concerned in the day-to-day struggles of their daughters, their servants and their relatives. And who among us can imagine Lady Cora having an affair with another man?

Perhaps this season’s series will concentrate on Lady Mary and her adjustment to widowhood. There will be suitors no doubt, but it seems like an old, old story that we’ve seen many times before. Much more interesting would be following the adventures of Lady Edith, who is tempted to move to London and take up with a man married to an insane woman. Barred from divorce by English law, Edith’s admirer will have no choice but to persuade her to accept a status as mistress. Will she be willing? I can’t help hoping that she can build herself a fine career as a journalist, move in with her lover, and have a far more exciting life than could ever be found at Downton Abbey.

And then there is Daisy. Will she take on the farm that her father-in-law is trying to give her? Instead of being a kitchen maid, or even the family cook, she could become a successful farmer and build herself a new kind of life. Her story would be far more fun to follow than poor Mary’s. After all Mary is stuck with living in the Abbey until her son can take the reins of managing the house. No matter which suitor she accepts her life is pretty well laid out.

In fact, the downstairs contingent of Downton Abbey have more to look forward to than their counterparts upstairs. The 1920s brought in sweeping changing which meant upward movement for the hordes of women and men working in domestic service. Leaving the grand mansions to become factory workers, shopkeepers, teaches, nurses and other possible new jobs gave them far more independence than they ever had before, while their “betters” struggled to keep their outdated lifestyles going. Let’s hope the producers give us a glimpse of the new world opening up for so many former servants after World War I.

In between episodes, if you want to find out more about the American heiresses who traveled to England to marry, read To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace. It paints a lively picture of transatlantic entanglements that helped draw our two countries together.