Emily Chan
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.
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