Born the daughter of a missionary and a preacher, her father's family was descended from French Huguenots who emigrated to England and later, to the United States. Her maternal side was Scotch Quaker.Seal, France Thurber (1931). Christian Science in Germany. p. 9. She was raised in a very religious home, but experienced deep sadness and longing after her mother's years of illness and then death, followed by the deaths of several other family members.Gottschalk, Stephen (2006). Rolling Away The Stone. pp. 187-188. As a young woman in New York City, she attended a Wednesday testimony meeting at the local Christian Science church, afterwards learning more of Christian Science through inquiry with Laura Lathrop, a Christian Science teacher in New York who was a student of Mary Baker Eddy.Seal (1931), pp. 11-12. Lathrop lent her No and Yes, a 46-page book by Eddy, which Seal read that evening, three times. Afterward, she found herself no longer suffering from a long-standing stomach ailment or the failing vision she had been told would result in early blindness.Seal (1931), pp. 12-13."Frances Thurber Seal, C.S.B.". Longyear Museum. She soon obtained a copy of Eddy's major work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and had class instruction with Lathrop.Seal (1931), p. 14. She soon joined a church and became an active member. A year later, she was asked by Lathrop to go to Dresden, Germany, where some German Christian Scientists had been requesting someone be sent to them. Although she had no money or knowledge of the German language and though she considered herself a novice in the religion, Lathrop assured her she had the necessary qualities and she agreed to go.Seal (1931), pp. 15-16. With financial help from Mary Beecher Longyear, Seal sailed for Germany in December 1897.
