Wartime love letters returned to U.S. family thanks to Ontario woman's discovery

 

Every once in a while I like to post a "feel good" story. You know, the kind that makes you smile, or gives you the feels. This is one of those times. It's been a rough year for most of us with the Pandemic. This story made me happy.

The story starts with this quote from the site: 

Morris and Betty Starkman were newlyweds in 1953 and about to start their lives together in Detroit when Morris, a doctor, was instead sent to Korea to fight in a painful war as a captain with the U.S. Medical Corps. 

Throughout that period, he wrote letters to his new wife and other family members.

Somehow, over the years, those letters, plus ones written back to him, became separated from the family, ending up in a tin box underneath a bunch of old magazines in a basement in Kingsville, Ont.

Spoiler Alert! The Ontario woman who bought the letters many years ago, researched the Starkmans and found their son. You can read the whole story here

DNA to the Rescue: Canadian Man Found After 30 Years

BBC News online has a compellling story of Edgar Latulip who was 21 years old when he disappeared 30 years ago. 

Edgar was living in a home for disabled individuals and had recently attempted suicide. When he disappeared his family thought he had either killed himself or been murdered.

Apparently Edgar suffered some kind of trauma to his head and lost his memory until recently.

Apparently DNA tests confirmed his identity. 

It's an odd story because I can't help but wonder how he survived for those 30 years if it is true, as the article states, he functions at the level of a 12 year old.

I did a little research on his mother (because that's what we genealogists do), who now goes by the name Sylvia Wilson and is said to live in Ottawa Ontario. Her father, and thus Edgar's grandfather's obituary is found in 1979 in the Ottawa Citizen under date of 1February   

Source: Ottawa Citizen - Feb 1, 1979

I hoped to find news stories of the disappearance in 1986 but had no luck.

Continue reading at Canada man missing for 30 years found after remembering identity

Image credit: Screenshot from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35557275

Brothers Reunited After 80 Years

What a wonderful story of two brothers. Ron Boyes, 83, was sent to Heage in Derbyshire when he was three, while his brother, Fred, 80, was taken in by a family in Banbury, Oxfordshire, when he was a baby.
They were brought up under their foster parents' names and were unaware of their true identities.

Even though they never knew each other growing up, both enlisted with the RAF at 18, played on the right wing for their football teams, married and named  a daughter Wendy.


Continue reading this heart-warming story at Long-lost brothers reunited for the first time in 80 YEARS after being fostered apart as babies

The  men are hoping to find two more brothers they believe were born to their mother Rosa Boyes.