Tuesday marks the first Valentine’s Day Carol Bohlin, 76, will spend with her parents’ long-lost World War II-era love letters, thanks to the work of a dedicated heirloom investigator.
Chelsey Brown, a New York-based genealogist who returns priceless treasures to families, used her knowledge of tracing family histories to track down a descendant of Claude Marsten Smythe and Marie Borgal Smythe, a couple married in the 1940s. The letters were written from 1943 to 1944.
“I recognize my dad’s handwriting,” said Bohlin, who now lives in Tinmouth, Vermont. “It’s been so long since I saw it, and so long since I heard his voice.”
The 18 letters Bohlin never knew existed, sent by her father to her mother as he served in the U.S. Navy during the war, had been tucked away for more than 50 years in the attic of Bohlin’s childhood home in Staten Island, New York, before a homeowner found them in the walls while renovating in 1995.
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The homeowner saw Brown on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and reached out for help to get the letters to the family. Months later, Brown connected with Bohlin’s son, who thanked her for returning the letters to his mother, via social media.
“I actually looked like the crying emoji when I first got that message,” Brown said in a TikTok video Wednesday.
Discovering lost heirlooms
Bohlin’s family lived in the Staten Island home from about 1947 through 1974, when Claude Smythe died, according to Bohlin. Her mother died in 1961.
“My father was a policeman, so he would keep things in his special place, out of reach of (me and my brother) by storing things up in the attic,” Bohlin said.
Dottie Kearney, who bought Bohlin’s former childhood home in the winter of 1995, believed the letters had fallen through the attic’s floorboards when she found them inside the walls.
Kearney held on to the documented “precious love story” for nearly 30 years in hopes of finding the rightful owners. But not being computer-savvy, she said, she had no luck finding relatives.
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Kearney saw Brown’s appearance last May on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” as she discussed returning family heirlooms, so she contacted her for help.
Returning a piece of family history
“During World War II, when you’re apart for so long, this is all they had,” Brown told USA TODAY. The letters “were really special.”
Of the artifacts she has helped return, Brown said, the information included with letters – addresses, dates and full names – make them easiest to work with.
“That’s the type of information you need to trace these families,” she said.
With information from Kearney’s photos of the letters and envelopes, Brown searched the genealogy site MyHeritage.com for details on the Smythes’ living relatives. What she was looking for appeared among the top results.
“I knew instantly this was the person,” Brown said. “It didn’t take me very long to trace the family.”
It took her longer to get in touch with Bohlin, she said. She found Bohlin’s son, Tim Bohlin, via Facebook, and he responded a couple of months later last August.
Once he was convinced it wasn’t a scam, he shared his mother’s contact details. Brown then shared that information with Kearney.
‘What a treasure’
Kearney said the family was “thrilled” to receive the letters she sent them.
“It fills my heart with joy to know they have a piece of their (family’s) history,” Kearney said. “I’m so grateful I saved them (and) they’re now where they belong.”
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Reading the letters, which Bohlin plans to keep safe, brought alive the “sweet memories” she held of her father, she said.
“What a treasure,” the mother of three sons and grandmother of two said. “I thought, what a beautiful thing to do, for someone to find and hold on to these letters for so long, and for someone to spend the time trying to find me so that I could receive these. It’s just so lovely.”