Man finds family's lost World War II letters on eBay

[rug]

Apr 17th 2017 8:58PM

MOUNT CARMEL (WNEP) -- Do you have something in your family history that you've been looking for years, but can't find? Something you're not even sure exists? Such was the case for a man from Northumberland County, who thought there were family letters from World War II somewhere out there.

John Leshinski of Mount Carmel has always been interested in World War II. Family members who served during the war sent letters to relatives back home. Leshinski says it was rumored within the family that someone saved those letters, but he could never find them. Recently Leshinski did an internet search to learn more about his family history. He typed in the name of his uncle Mike and found a listing on eBay.

"It said about these letters that were for sale. The first word I recognized I think was Shamokin and then I started reading the names. Then I thought, I've been looking for these letters for the better part of my adult life," John said.

There they were. 65 letters from Leshinski's father, three uncles, and another relative from World War II.

"When he told me I said oh my gosh you've been looking for these for so long and I can't believe you found them," Trina Leshinski said.

Leshinski's sons paid $283 to buy the letters. When he read them he saw a different side of his father, who rarely talked about the war.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/04/17/man-finds-family-s-lost-world-war-ii-letters-on-ebay/22043689/

1:56 video at link.

[retrowire]

1. He better have gotten a discount!!! Nt

[Lee-Lee]

2. Is amazing how many family items like this end up for sale

There is a surplus store not far from me that gets stuff all the time and tries to connect it with the families. Everything from dog tags to Purple Hearts of KIA Soldiers.

It's kind of refreshing to see someone care more about connecting that stuff with family than making fast money off it. Even more surprising since he usually has right win radio playing in there. But he is a retired Warrant Officer so I guess he gets it.

[Kittycow]

3. I have a lot of family memorabilia tho not historically important.

Just odds and ends, not valuable but not junk. The next generation of my family are minimalists and not interested in them apparently.

So I have them divided into what must be saved and "the EBay Stream ". I do hope that the kids change their minds, though.

I'm trying to track down (non-family ) identified antique photos down to return to families and was able to do that in one case.

[Plucketeer]

5. It amazes me too

I occasionally wander thru the antique stores here in town. There's always some old photos of folks and places that someone surely cherished at one time. How could they end up in an antique store where NO ONE will recognize or appreciate the who or where of these images? It's sad to think that no one cared about their lineage - good or bad.

Rescuedfilm.com is a cool site dedicated to saving undeveloped film from succumbing to the ages.

[csziggy]

6. My sister finds photo albums and family pictures (in frames) at thrift shops constantly

She's also found family Bibles and other really personal stuff. We've intermittently tried to locate who they belonged to, but often there is not enough information to even make a start. Right now I have several batches of photos from her, a couple of albums, some loose photos that were in the back of a photo album, and other odds and ends. When photos are labeled "Grace's wedding" with no last names, date or location it's pretty hopeless.

My sister used to have a wall of random framed pictures of people she didn't know. Over the years she has replaced those with our own family photos.

A recommendation - put identification on your photos. If in an album, name the people, the year and the occasion. In in a frame, tape a label on the back.

My husband and I have been scanning family photos from both sides of the family. It's frustrating to have the family photo albums with no information. My husband's mother had a whole box of photos that no one knew who they were - and probably will never know who they were. My goal is to post ALL our family photos online with all the information I can about each. I'm not sure who will end up with the physical photos, but the digital ones will be available to anyone who wants to see them and learn about the people in them.

[Plucketeer]

4. To the opposite....

I volunteered to take guardianship of a suitcase full of letters from my wife's grandfather to various other relatives (as well as his fiance) that he sent home while serving in the AEF in WWI. No one else in the family wanted them! In fact, most of them haven't been looked at since they were received and read in the late teens of the 20th century.

Grandad also had kept a locker full of WWI relics, maps and documents that the siblings gave to the local library - which were simply relegated to the basement of said library - never to be seen again. The library won't even let me look at what's there.

Grandad was an ambulance driver in France. I probably can't imagine the horrors of that job, but at least he wasn't trench fodder like so many innocent young men were. I wish I'd gotten to chat with him, but I was 11 years old when he died and I didn't meet his grandaughter until 24 years later.

[csziggy]

7. Maybe a museum would be interested in those things?

Here there is a museum of World War II associated with Florida State University that will accept donations of papers, letters and photos.

There should be something similar for World War I somewhere in the country.

My husband's great uncle drove an ambulance in the AEF in World War I in France. He wrote letters home to his siste, my husband's grandmother. At the time, she was working as a secretary at the Carnegie Foundation in NYC.She'd transcribe the letters and submit them to the NY Times where they were published as a regular item.

We have the original letters, the carbon copies of the transcriptions and an unpublished autobiography that Robert Alden Reaser wrote about his experiences in France. My husband has fond memories of his great uncle so these items are very important to him.

If I were an author I would suggest that we get together and edit and publish a book about the ambulance drivers of the AEF in World War I!

[Plucketeer]

8. I'm actually a semi-professional author

And doing something like you suggest HAS crossed my mind a time or two. But I'm 72 now and have way too much to do in whatever little time I have left. That said, I will look into your suggestion and see if there's some organization that would give these letters a good and caring home. Thanks.

[csziggy]

9. If you find one, let me know

Between my husband's family and mine we are going to be dealing with a massive amount of historical and genealogical material. I just cannot store it all and my sisters are not interested in storing it. My husband's siblings and some of their children might be interested in some of it, but there is still a ton of stuff that will have to go somewhere.

I'm actually considering adding to the second story of our house to make room for the material that I will get after my mother dies. But I am trying to sort out things that were just accumulated and that are not from direct ancestors - a postcard collection from the 1800s that belonged to a cousin of my great grandfather, the certificate for a doctor relative signed by Abraham Lincoln (or maybe one of his cabinet members), and thousands of documents.

I've already donated my grandmother's journal of her first year in Florida after the family arrived in 1925. They moved to a mine company owned town that was dismantled in 1952 and mined in the 1950s. Nothing is left of the town, but we have my grandmother's narrative of life there and lots of family photos. I've let the Florida Photo Archives scan most of the photos and the journal went there, also.

I'm trying to locate a New Orleans historical group for donations of my grandfather's photos from there in the early 1910s - that include levee washouts and rebuilding as well as early pumping stations. I need to contact someone in Escanaba, Michigan, to see who might be interested in high school graduation programs from the high school there in the early 1900s and other memorabilia from the town. And there is so much more!

When I graduated from college I wanted to work in a museum. Now it seems as though my old age will be spent contacting museums and historical associations to distribute items of interest to them. I'll turn 65 soon and I'm not sure I will live long enough - though Mom is 96 and if I live as long as she has, maybe I will!