A lot of interesting treasures can be found at thrift stores.
A thrift store in Belgium once found a photo album of a mystery woman posing with some of the world’s biggest celebs. This included Robert Downey Jr. and Angelina Jolie .
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This latest discovery goes back over a century! A thrift store found a marriage certificate from the 1870s. Even better: the internet helped find the couple’s family!
This happened after a painting was donated to Hope Chest Thrift Store in Bolivia, North Carolina.
The organization raises money to help survivors of domestic violence and their families.
The painting was of a young girl putting flowers in a black dog’s collar. The words on the top read, “Christmas Number Illustrated London News 1889.”
Inside the painting, staff found a 149-year-old marriage certificate belonging to William DeWorth and Katharine “Katey” Havey.
This discovery was alerted to Karmen Smith, executive director of Hope Harbor Home Inc.
She took to social media with a sole mission: find any living family of the couple.
“Alright Facebook world, I need a miracle,” she wrote on Facebook.
She began by sharing more about the certificate. “Upon looking at the back it was discovered that beneath the paper was a hidden file folder. This file, contained the Marriage Certificate of a New Jersey couple.” The date of the vows was April 11th, 1875!
“This is a true treasure and was obviously, at one point in time, protected,” she shared.
“As a society we have lost the value of story telling so its safe to assume that the story of the stowaway marriage certificate got lost in the generations that followed it.”
She then asked people to share the post so that she could find the family of the couple.
Thankfully, the power of social media is mighty strong!
Despite the font being worn, social media users were able to determine the names and then search through public records and family search websites.
In the end, it was genealogist Connie Knox who found DeWorth and Havey’s living descendants by conducting research on Ancestry.com.
On August 9, Irene Cornish, 65, came forward as the great-granddaughter of DeWorth and Havey. Cornish traveled all the way down to North Carolina from upstate New York to retrieve the certificate and painting.
“I’m still kind of in shock by it all,” Cornish told FOX News.
She was shocked that the document from the 1870s still existed and that it had survived in the picture frame.
She was also touched that strangers helped her reunite with a special piece of her family history.
Since Irene doesn’t have any family in North Carolina, she was confused as to how the painting ended up there.
She told FOX News that she’s hoping someone else will come forward if they recognize the painting it came with. “This particular great-grandmother has always been of interest to me,” she said.
“I think because she was to my mother too,” Cornish said, adding that Havey immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland.
“I would love to know where in Ireland she’s from,” Cornish continued. “I’ve never been able to trace that back.” This discovery has inspired her to continue researching her great-grandparents.
Although the historic document survived this long on its own, she still plans to consult professional archivists to learn how to preserve and make copies of the document.
“We read about history, but our ancestors are our own history,” Cornish said. “And that’s why I’m fascinated by it.”
Smith was equally delighted by the reunion.
“Hope Chest Thrift Stores would like to thank our AMAZING community for the love and support over this last week as we hunt for the owner of the discovered Marriage Certificate hidden in a donated picture,” she wrote on Hope Harbor Home’s Facebook page.
She was also delighted that this incredible story brought awareness to their program and services for victims of domestic violence. Learn more about this here !
