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A woman dubbed the “Heirloom Hunter” has revealed her latest incredible find – a World War II identification bracelet that fell off the owner’s wrist more than seven decades ago.

Chelsey Brown, 28, from New York, finds diaries, letters, and family heirlooms and reunites them with the descendants of those behind them.

Recently, she came across a military identification bracelet at a flea market in New York.

She did some research and discovered it was from the Second World War, and was used to identify service members killed in action.

Bracelets of this sort were often made of sterling silver and had a name and identification number on the front, with a message from a loved one engraved on the other side.

In this case, the bracelet was inscribed ‘Godspeed Ede’.

Chelsey used her well-honed skills to find out the origin of the bracelet – and track down its owner.

“All I had to do was look up the identification number on MyHeritage.com and within minutes, I was able to find the name of the owner of the bracelet,” Chelsey told NeedToKnow.online.

“Next, I found a public family tree with him in it, and contacted the owner of that tree. They then got me into contact with the daughter of the solider who owned the bracelet.

“Turns out the bracelet fell off her wrist years ago! What are the odds?”

She discovered Ede was the wife of a soldier and, while the two later divorced, they were buried next to one another.

Chelsey is now in the process of reuniting the lost piece of jewellery with their daughter.

She shared the incredible tale on TikTok (@chelseyibrown) with her 148,000 followers, where the clip was viewed more than 30,000 times and racked up 3,700 likes.

One person commented: “I’m so happy he survived the war. I hope they got back together.”

“My dad wears his grandpas bracelet and it’s exactly like that!” another user said.

Someone else added: “Your account is my absolute FAVORITE. All this history is so amazing.”

Chelsey added: “There’s this myth that heirlooms end up at flea markets and in resellers hands because families just give these items away. This is not true.

“The main reasons items end up in markets is 1. Family drama: Someone gets access to an estate and doesn’t give the items to the rest of the family and 2. Many items were lost after WWII as many families moved around the country.

“Items were lost during those moves and continue to circulate to this day. Also, as we can see in this case, this bracelet fell off of her wrist, leading it to be found and circulating between vintage resellers for years.

“This has been one of my favourite returns so far as WWII artifacts are some of my favourite to find. Heirloom returns like this one fuel me to keep doing more. There is no better feeling than reuniting a family with a lost treasure.”

ENDS

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