A Michigan Woman Received a 100-Year-Old Postcard—and Is Now on the Search for a Relative of the Recipient
Whether you pick up a postcard as a collectible or send a few to loved ones while on a trip abroad, postcards are an extra special memento that you can hold onto for years. They can also offer a glimpse into a bygone era—which is exactly what happened to Brittany Keech. The Belding, Michigan, resident often receives mail from the previous owners of her home, but one piece of mail caught her eye—a 100-year-old postcard.
The Halloween-themed postcard was addressed to Roy McQueen and included a one-cent George Washington stamp. "I was honestly surprised," Keech told NBC News after receiving the postcard. "I didn't think I could read it first. When I started looking at it closer, I noticed that it was a really old letter dated back to 1920."
According to CNN, the postcard reads, "Dear Cousins, Hope this will find you all well. We are quite well but mother has awful lame knees. It is awful cold here. I just finished my history lesson and am going to bed pretty soon. My father is shaving and my mother is telling me your address. I will have to close for a night. Hope grandma and grandpa are well. Don't forget to write us—Roy get his pants fixed yet." It was signed by Flossie Burgess.
Courtesy of Brittany Keech
In hopes of finding the family of the recipient and sender, Keech posted in a Facebook group called "Positively Belding." She expected to receive just a handful of comments but received hundreds of helpful users. Through the power of social media, Keech gained a few leads about the family of the intended original recipient. "I know a lot of people here in Belding have lived here for a long time—or their family has lived here and they just come back to their roots," Keech told NBC News. "So I knew 'Positively Belding' would give me a little bit of other than me just starting to look into it myself."
After an interview with The New York Times, Keech was connected with someone who had a relationship with the family of Roy McQueen. "I started talking with her and asked her to send me their genealogy so that I could see their relation and the connection between," she said.
And in a time of global crisis, the genealogy project is exactly what Keech—and others in the Belding community—needed. "It kept our minds off of everything that's going on with the pandemic, and it gives me something to do," she said. "I have not been able to really do much right now, besides homeschool my son, but it's been nice to have something else in terms of positive talk I'm focused on right now."
