"The Sound of Music," a hit movie from 1965 starring Julie Andrews, was based loosely on the experiences of Maria von Trapp as told in a 1949 book she wrote, "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers." Maria von Trapp died in 1987. In the book she writes of her experiences marrying a widower with more than half a dozen children and teaching them music.

The family choir, The Trapp Family Singers, performed in the 1930s before fleeing Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938.

They came to the United States and ended up settling in Vermont, where the family has long maintained an Austrian-style lodge and resort for guests. The Trapp Family Singers also were popular with audiences in the United States.

You can find more information on the real history of the von Trapp family at the family lodge's Web site and at the U.S. government's National Archives.