Recognize the Writing, Dad?

Finally an answer to that postcard mystery in Stratford, Connecticut. East Sumner, Me., native James Merrill was intrigued by the story, and sent a copy to his daughter, Harvard librarian Jan Merrill-Oldham.

"It was the unmistakable handwriting of my mother Alice (Merrill), and I just stared at it and couldn't believe the story was saying it was written by someone else," she said. "I called my father and teased him and said, 'Dad, don't you even know your own wife's handwriting?"'

He took a closer look and realized his wife of 64 years, Alice Merrill, had, in fact, written the postcard.

"I felt pretty foolish when I realized it," James Merrill said. [Link]

93-year-old Alice doesn't remember sending the card.

[Thanks, Nancy!]

Alice Doesn't Live There Anymore

People in Stratford, Connecticut, are trying to figure out who sent Town Manager Harry B. Flood a postcard back in 1957. The card—which turned up at the town office only recently—was mailed from East Sumner, Maine, and read "Hi, Enjoying this rather fallish weather. It was 44 degrees yesterday. See you next week. Alice."

The mystery woman could be Alice McHugh, a 1938 U.S. and world champion duckpin bowler who died in 1986.

"A man claiming to be her relative showed us a handwriting sample on her will that to me appears very similar to that of the Alice who signed the postcard, and she is said to have traveled extensively on trains because her husband worked for the New Haven line," said Jerry Gillespie, head of adult services and reference at the Stratford Library.

Another contender is Alice (Standish) Staples, whose daughter was an assistant town clerk in 1957. Or perhaps it was Alice Flynn.

Several people have contacted the mayor's office and library to say a woman named Alice Flynn worked in the town clerk's office in 1957 — though no records of her have been found in area phone directories from that time.

But library researchers say she could be the most likely of the candidates so far, and are combing town employee records for her name. [Link]

Postcard Samaritan Strikes Again

Doris Alman of Mason City, Iowa, was sent a postcard mailed by her parents to her grandmother back in 1968.

Alman turned her attention to the envelope the card was mailed in, wondering who sent it to her.

The No. 10 envelope has a one-line return address: Lost Postcard Rescue Dept.

The envelope has a 41-cent Gerald Ford postage stamp and the postmark shows it was mailed from Brooklyn, N.Y., on Nov. 21, 2007.

That’s where the mystery rests for Alman.

“I have no idea who it came from,” she said. “You would almost have to think it was someone who does genealogy because our last names are different.” [Link]

Sound familiar? I blogged last January about a similar case in South Carolina.

The envelope the card came in was postmarked in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 9. The return address is an e-mail account held by someone using the moniker "lost.postcards." [Ned] Hethington has e-mailed the account several times but has yet to receive a reply.

Most Impersonal Love Letter Ever

A postcard sent by World War I soldier Walter Butler to his fiancée Amy Hicks in Wiltshire was finally delivered this week—90 years late, and to their 86-year-old daughter Joyce. What interests me most is the narrow range of sentiments Walter was allowed to express.

Wartime security restrictions meant that soldiers were only allowed to send the most basic messages for fear of accidentally giving vital information to the enemy.

Soldiers were [...] provided with a list of printed options which they had to cross out or leave to be read as appropriate.

Walter left the line “I am quite well” undeleted, along with another saying that he had not received a letter from Amy “for a long time.” [Link]

I Suspect a Genealogist

Some good Samaritan mailed Ned Hethington a postcard his great-aunt should have received in 1949.

The envelope the card came in was postmarked in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 9. The return address is an e-mail account held by someone using the moniker "lost.postcards." Hethington has e-mailed the account several times but has yet to receive a reply.

Did someone find the card in an old mailbag and send it on its way? Or was it a collector who decided to have a little fun by tracking down a descendant of the intended recipient? For the record, the postal service says it wasn't them.

"Someone paid 39 cents to send it to me, but why didn't they put a note in there?" Hethington said. "I'd just love to know who it was and where it's been all this time." [Link]

Click over to Honoring our Ancestors for info on known heirloom rescuers.

Postcard Delivered 93 Years Late

From (Prince William Co., Va.) PotomacNews.com:

Woman finds relatives of 93-year-old postcard

By Daniel Gilbert
dgilbert@manassasjm.com
Friday, October 28, 2005

Margie McHose has an unusual affection for Alfred Leigh, a man she has never met, a man who died long before she was born.

An image of Leigh, a former slave turned shoemaker, wound up on the face of a postcard in McHose's garage last May, inspiring a search to locate his living family. The search ended on Thursday at a conference in Washington, D.C.

McHose, a retired Woodbridge resident, was preparing for a yard sale when she discovered a postcard featuring an old black man in cobbler attire at the Jamestown Exposition. The caption identified the man as Alfred Leigh, a former slave belonging to Judge Thomas Leigh of Halifax County. The postcard was not dated.

[snip]

"I kept looking at the picture and looking at the face," she says in a heavy Bronx accent, "and I know it might sound crazy and weird, but his eyes seemed to say: 'Find where I belong.' "

[snip]

[Read the whole story]