Highlights of the items that Brown has found in her adventures include letters, photos, cards and even Second World War ration books. Instead of selling these items, however, she has instead undertaken the difficult job of attempting to return them to their original families. Once she was returned love letters written in the 1960s to the original recipient. Imagine that. I wonder how that woman felt when she received those letters back and what the rest of her love story would tell.
Anyway, Brown starts her process with items that have a clue of some sort like a name, a date, an address or some other helpful hint. The Citizen says that her success rate is 80 percent. Pretty amazing and definitely very interesting for those items that return home.
I doubt that I would have the skills necessary to tackle such a job so I will stick with reselling the items that I have found that generally have no obvious link to the past. The vintage black and white photographs shown above are all without any identifiers. No names, no dates.
I think there is a moral here and that is to cherish a few items from your past and to make sure that they are identified as such for the next generations. I do remember one elderly friend who did this and who put little notes on or with things so that in the future family members would know where they had come from and the importance or family connection of each item.
Do you have pieces of treasured ephemera that tell a story from your past? I would love to hear from you.
Treasures By Brenda
MORE READING:
Discover these and other vintage B&W photographs in my eBay store.
Read the complete Thrift Store Detective story.
Woman returns Holocaust letter to family 75 years later.
Follow Chelsey Brown on Instagram.
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