WWII soldier's love letters found during a home renovation 30 years ago reunited with family

Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Love letters penned by a soldier during World War II were returned to his daughter 30 years after a Staten Island homeowner found them during a home renovation.

Homeowner Dottie said she found the letters addressed to Marie Smythe from her husband, Claude Smythe, in the ceiling of her renovated home 30 years ago.
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She said she was recently watching a talk show on television and saw "heirloom investigator" Chelsea Brown was the guest and reached out for help.

Brown used MyHeritage, a genealogy website, to track down the couple's adult daughter Carol Bohlin in Vermont.
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"This one was so special because I didn't actually know if the descendants would ever see my message about the letters (sometimes that happens)," Brown said in a release to MyHeritage. "This one was also particularly special because this wasn't an artifact that I found. A woman who was doing a renovation in the '90s found these letters in her house, and she didn't know what to do with them for years. She'd held onto them until she discovered what I did."

Photos of Bohlin show her happy to be reunited with her parents' long-lost love letters, along with a photo of her parents.

MyHeritage.com via Storyful
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