Elizabeth (daughter of Ernie)

Thanks for sharing. The book is called Hesse: A Princely German Collection (2005). You can find it on Amazon. It includes a tiara she wore.

Thank you I will try to get that book

Welcome !

I wonder if Ducky kept the letters Elisabeth wrote her ?

It's perfectly possible that Ducky kept the letters but they were lost or deliberately destroyed upon her death.
It was also common in the U.S. - the vast majority of Presidential papers pre-Herbert Hoover were dispersed or destroyed following their President's death.

I wonder if Ducky kept the letters Elisabeth wrote her ?

Indeed. Maybe they were given to Ernie as keepsake ?

A basic , maybe too simple a question.  Why would the daughter of a Grand Duke of Hesse/Darmstadt not be a grandduchess? Why Princess Elizabeth instead of Grand Duchess Elizabeth?

The Grand Duke was the Reigning ruler of the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, until it was abolished after WWI.
Only his wife or widowed mother held the rank of Grand Duchess. Wife - Grand Duchess. Mother - Dowager Grand Duchess.

The Grand Duke's oldest son and Heir (only males can inherit directly, very similar to the Pauline Laws in Russia)'s wife was titled “Hereditary Grand Duchess" like a Crown Princess will held.

Elisabeth was only a daughter of a Grand Duke, so she was in-titled Princess. Even though she was an only child at her death, she was not her father's heir.

Unless AND A BIG WHAT IF, she lived, only child, and married the next inline heir to the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt were the Princes of Hesse-Cassel, a junior branch of the Hesse Family..anyways if Elisabeth married the eldest boy and heir to both branches, THEN she would have been a Grand Duchess.

I do wonder if Elisabeth did grow up, which cousin she would have married ?

 Sadly Eric. to what if past history is pointless. 

Not really. I think there is an expectation that she would marry George of Battenberg. The two even played bride and groom in one of their games (photos to prove).

post the photo to prove it. then i'll believe it *wink*

Cannot. The picture is from the Mountbatten collection at Southhampton University in England. The same one they tried to sell off. I went there and did research. I think I would put that in my next book. My friend Charlotte Zeepvat would surely like it. Until then.

Since this bride and groom game was played when George was no more than 11 and Elizabeth no more than 7, it hardly proves anything.

What I am saying is that ideas were formed in the parents mind that they might be paired off. It doesn't need to prove anything, this is not a court of law. And we are not judges.

Doesn't matter really, since its the past and the little girl died young. What ifs in History only spread rumors and myths.

and also Eric, do you have PROOF that the parents wanted their children to marry? just because they're children were dressed as bride and groom?

A photo can tall 100s stories, but only one is a fact, they were playing dress up and that's it. Never let your imagination get a hold, that wants makes false info.
they why say useless "what ifs" and such when someone asks for the fact?...