She’s An Heirloom Hunter, And She Helped Return These Love Letters From World War II To Their Rightful Owners
Family heirlooms are priceless connections to our past. Whether it’s a special piece of jewelry passed down for generations or a family recipe created by a great-grandmother, these treasures make you feel closer to your ancestors and help you learn about your family history.
Unfortunately, these precious heirlooms often go missing over the years. They might accidentally get donated to a thrift store or lost during a move.
Once they’re gone, it’s nearly impossible to recover them again. And when that happens, it can feel like losing a piece of yourself.
Heirloom hunter Chelsey Brown (@chelseyibrown) has made it her mission to return lost artifacts to family members and descendants, and she’s walking TikTok through the process of how she tracked down the rightful owner of a set of World War II love letters.
“Someone found World War Two love letters in their home while doing a renovation and contacted me for help in returning these letters to their rightful family, and of course, I said yes,” said Chelsey.
The person doing the home renovations contacted Chelsey by email and sent her the contents of the letters and the envelope. From the information on the envelope, Chelsey was able to trace the family within just a few days.
She searched for the name and address listed on the envelope using an online genealogy platform called MyHeritage.com.
“You might be able to find the family with just that step, but if multiple of the same names pop up, all you’re going to do is look through the census record and find the address that matches the address on the envelope perfectly,” she explained.
Chelsey then pulled up a census record sheet to show what it looked like. Census records list every person who lived in a specific household during a particular year.
librakv – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
She ended up finding a census record with the receiver of the letter and an address that matched perfectly. From there, she searched for public family trees to trace the descendants of the letter receiver.
Chelsey was able to reach the daughter of the couple who had written the love letters to each other. The woman was shocked to learn that something she never knew existed had gotten left behind in the house she grew up in.
She had lost her mother at 14-years-old, then her dad passed away in her early twenties, so she was excited to be reunited with a piece of them again.
In the end, Chelsey sent the letters back to their rightful owner. She was touched by the woman’s emotional reaction.
“I actually looked like the crying emoji when I first got that message,” Chelsey said.
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