Michigan resident receives 100-year-old postcard

A 100-year-old postcard mysteriously appeared in the mailbox of Brittany Keech from Belding, Michigan. The tattered and timeworn postcard instantly piqued her interest with a faded green one-cent George Washington stamp, postmarked October 29, 1920. Featuring a Halloween illustration, including a black cat, pumpkins, a witch, an owl, and a broomstick, along with a playful question, the postcard held hidden secrets from the past. This is prepared by SSP.

Carefully deciphering the faded cursive writing, Keech discovered that it was a letter exchanged between family members. The letter, addressed to a Mrs. Roy McQueen, provided snippets of everyday life at the time, mentioning their well-being, a mother with "awful lame knees," and the cold weather.

Unwilling to let the antique postcard go unclaimed, Keech took to social media, specifically the "Positively Belding" Facebook page, to seek assistance in tracing its origins. The local community showed significant interest, and Robby Peters, a genealogy enthusiast, delved into the task of finding answers.

Peters examined a 1920 census and managed to match the address on the postcard to a Roy McQueen who lived in the same location where Keech currently resides. Further research revealed that Roy McQueen, a Canadian immigrant who moved to the United States in 1887, was married to Nora Murdock. The likely author of the postcard, Florence "Flossie" Burgess, was Nora Murdock's sister's daughter.

Building on Peters' findings, Sheryl Ackerman, another genealogy enthusiast, corroborated the information. While most family members appeared to have no descendants, they did find a grandniece of Roy and Nora. Ackerman established contact between the grandniece and Keech, in hopes of reuniting the postcard with its rightful family.

Curiously, the unanswered question remained: How did this century-old postcard find its way into Keech's mailbox? According to USPS mail carrier Mindy Ponover, old letters rarely resurface. One possibility suggested that the postcard may have become lodged behind a baseboard, in a crack, or even within machinery in a now-renovated post office.

Ponover speculated that lost mail frequently ends up in the Dead Letter Office, where attempts are made to locate recipients and deliver the letters. However, in this instance, it seems the postcard reentered the system long after being lost, possibly through its sale in a flea market or antique shop.

While the United States Postal Service has faced recent challenges and controversies, involving political scrutiny and mail delays, this unusual incident with the 100-year-old postcard served as a reminder of the Postal Service's ability to deliver long-lost pieces of history.