A very cool story I wanted to share...
About a year ago I bought some items from a women in Toronto, it was a modest lot and I saw some items I thought I could make a buck off (which i did)! I got what I thought plus some extras, one of the extras was a pair of dog tags from the US military, they were WWII style - but I had no interest for them in my collections.
About 6 months after I received them I started to do a little research and found an obituary in a Albany, NY newspaper for the name on the tags, from there I used lovely technology to find out whom the daughter of these tags was and where she was located. I found all the information but was reluctant to act on it, b/c I dont know why the tags got away in the first place... perhaps a bad situation or trying to forget. So I let it sit, until a couple of weeks ago.
I gave the phone number I had a call, I had a pretty good idea this was the daughter. I explained who I was and what I had and at first the response was pure confusion. So much so that the daughter (now in her 60s) had to hand the phone off to her husband while she sat down to thinking about what I was saying. So I explained myself again to the man and the response was just pure amazement and joy.
I sent the tags express-post to them and they got to them this week, I sent this letter with it explaining everything:
Please find in the envelope the dog tags belonging to Morris Herman. Incase I was not clear on the phone this is the story of how they came to be in my possession:
I put out classified ads in search for WWII items every few months (My passion for collecting comes from my interest in history – currently obtaining an Honours History Degree from McMaster University). An older lady from the Toronto area whom was in possession of items that she did not value contacted me. I met up with her and bought the items. Within this lot was a set of dog tags, belonging to Morris.
I have been holding on to these tags for almost a year now, and a couple months ago I did a quick search on family that Morris had back here in North America. I came up with Dianne Boss’ name in an obituary from an Albany paper. I hesitated to call right away because I was not sure on the reaction I would get, I did not want to bring grief, and my intentions are to make sure the right people have these dog tags – a symbol of accomplishment and honour of being accepted into military service.
They responded to my email with a nice note:
We just received my wife’s father’s dog tags, and I would like to express our profound gratitude for your efforts and kindness on my wife’s behalf. Indeed, the dog tags you sent offered a kind of tangible punctuation to your wonderfully articulate and consoling letter. You might find it interesting, if not providential, that the dog tags arrived exactly on the date of my father-in-law’s second yortzeit. Again, thank you very much. We wish you every success in your studies and profession.
This was probably one of the most fulfilling things I've done in quite sometimes and shows how the little things can go a long way. Helping others is just so rewarding. This was more than I could have ever expected when I started collecting. I am currently looking for more tags to purchase and return to families. Although I doubt it will be as easy as this connection was. I am currently working on making the connection from where I got the tags and the Herman family.
About a year ago I bought some items from a women in Toronto, it was a modest lot and I saw some items I thought I could make a buck off (which i did)! I got what I thought plus some extras, one of the extras was a pair of dog tags from the US military, they were WWII style - but I had no interest for them in my collections.
About 6 months after I received them I started to do a little research and found an obituary in a Albany, NY newspaper for the name on the tags, from there I used lovely technology to find out whom the daughter of these tags was and where she was located. I found all the information but was reluctant to act on it, b/c I dont know why the tags got away in the first place... perhaps a bad situation or trying to forget. So I let it sit, until a couple of weeks ago.
I gave the phone number I had a call, I had a pretty good idea this was the daughter. I explained who I was and what I had and at first the response was pure confusion. So much so that the daughter (now in her 60s) had to hand the phone off to her husband while she sat down to thinking about what I was saying. So I explained myself again to the man and the response was just pure amazement and joy.
I sent the tags express-post to them and they got to them this week, I sent this letter with it explaining everything:
Please find in the envelope the dog tags belonging to Morris Herman. Incase I was not clear on the phone this is the story of how they came to be in my possession:
I put out classified ads in search for WWII items every few months (My passion for collecting comes from my interest in history – currently obtaining an Honours History Degree from McMaster University). An older lady from the Toronto area whom was in possession of items that she did not value contacted me. I met up with her and bought the items. Within this lot was a set of dog tags, belonging to Morris.
I have been holding on to these tags for almost a year now, and a couple months ago I did a quick search on family that Morris had back here in North America. I came up with Dianne Boss’ name in an obituary from an Albany paper. I hesitated to call right away because I was not sure on the reaction I would get, I did not want to bring grief, and my intentions are to make sure the right people have these dog tags – a symbol of accomplishment and honour of being accepted into military service.
They responded to my email with a nice note:
We just received my wife’s father’s dog tags, and I would like to express our profound gratitude for your efforts and kindness on my wife’s behalf. Indeed, the dog tags you sent offered a kind of tangible punctuation to your wonderfully articulate and consoling letter. You might find it interesting, if not providential, that the dog tags arrived exactly on the date of my father-in-law’s second yortzeit. Again, thank you very much. We wish you every success in your studies and profession.
This was probably one of the most fulfilling things I've done in quite sometimes and shows how the little things can go a long way. Helping others is just so rewarding. This was more than I could have ever expected when I started collecting. I am currently looking for more tags to purchase and return to families. Although I doubt it will be as easy as this connection was. I am currently working on making the connection from where I got the tags and the Herman family.
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