Wartime Letters Going to a New Home, Part 1

Early this year, I wrote about wanting to donate a series of letters written to my grandparents and my mother by a family in England. 

The correspondence began when a widow walking her dog met my aunt Dorothy, a WAC serving in England during World War II. They struck up a conversation and this lovely widow began writing to Dorothy's parents (my grandparents) and to Dorothy's twin sister (my Mom). 

Keep or find a new home outside the family?

Because the letters have no particular ancestral significance, I saw an opportunity to curate my holdings by finding the letters a safe new home outside the family. Sis agreed with my plan to let the letters go. Always check with your family first!

Here's the process I followed (and you might follow) for finding a good new home for items that aren't absolutely vital to the family's history. Part 1 of 2.

Process for finding artifacts a new home

With my sister's agreement, I attempted to find any living descendants of the letter writers by looking at online family trees. My goal was to tell them the story of the correspondence, express my family's appreciation for their ancestors' kindness, and offer them the letters. (Note: there's more to this story in Part 2, no help needed now!)

I had no response from the owners of two online family trees with that family. Next, I found a more distant cousin with an online tree and contacted him. After months of trying to reach out to closer cousins, he got no response either.

We agreed it was best if these wartime letters go to an institution, to be preserved for the future. And we both had the same thought about an appropriate repository.

Match the artifact to the repository

To find the right repository, I first classified the letters: 

• World War II period descriptions of the home front in England
• Original letters and cards, including envelopes with stamps and postmarks
• Written in England on thin wartime stationery
• Mailed to individuals in America
• Evidence of examination by wartime censors (see image above)
• Written after meeting my aunt, a WAC serving in England
• Ongoing contact from 1943-1945

The perfect place for these letters, we believed, was the Imperial War Museum in England. It is dedicated to documenting the "human experience of war and conflict and the impact it has had on people’s lives." The letters from England were a contemporary window into the everyday life of a family close to military bases where UK and US servicepeople were training or stationed in World War II. 

The correspondence revealed how this family coped with wartime shortages, detailed who was joining the military, who was at school, and how they felt about the war. These folks opened their home to my aunt the WAC and their hearts to my aunt's family.

What will the repository accept?

I checked the Imperial War Museum's guidelines about offering to donate an item. After noting their collecting priorities, I wrote an email to explain the letters and their significance in light of the museum's mission. I provided a bit of background about the letters being provoked by a meeting with my aunt the WAC, serving alongside the 9th Air Force in England (and later France and Belgium). All institutions want to know provenance, so this was part of my explanation.

I had already scanned all the letters and envelopes, and had ready a summary of the dates and who's who of the writers and the recipients. To support my request to donate artifacts, I attached a scan of one of the letters--including a tiny head shot of the letter writer! I hoped to attract the attention of the curator with this sample of handwritten letters from the heart. 

Helping shape a proposal

After nearly a month, I was delighted to hear from the curator of the American Air Museum, a part of the Imperial War Museum. She was interested in the family letters and especially intrigued that my aunt was the historian of her WAC detachment connected with US Air Force (the focus of this division of the Imperial War Museum). 

She quickly created an entry for my aunt on their museum website, drawing on a bite-sized bio I wrote for my aunt on Find a Grave. And after checking my aunt's history of the WAC unit, she began adding other WACs to the museum's database.

Next, the curator asked me for additional background to help her write a proposal that the museum's directors would read as they considered whether to accept the letters. I submitted a contextual summary of the letter writers' family situation, the recipients' family situation, my aunt's WAC career. Also I said I had no more letters beyond 1945, so it appeared unlikely that the connection continued after my aunt finally returned from Europe to her parents' Bronx apartment.

One more bit of due diligence

The museum's directors met and determined that before they made a decision about the letters, they wanted one more bit of due diligence: to check for any other descendants in England. They were able to locate two living descendants that I was not aware of--and those descendants quickly agreed that the letters written by their ancestors should most definitely have a new home in the museum.

Thanks to the museum, the descendants and I are now in touch with each other. We've shared more about the later lives of the correspondents. We are all excited that after 80-plus years, our families are connected again through the letters written during World War II.

To be continued: Did the museum say "yes" to accepting the letters for their collection? What happens next?

More in Part 2, here!

PS: I learned how to donate artifacts by trial and error. If I can do it, so can you! 

Why Edna Wrote Teddy and Minnie, 1943

My aunt Dorothy Schwartz (1919-2001) was in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. She served in the WAC detachment of the US 9th Air Force in England, France, and Belgium from spring, 1943 until summer, 1945. 

It was the first time New York City-born Dorothy had been overseas. The pressure of wartime duties also weighed on her, I know from letters home. But my aunt was dedicated and determined to serve. 

How Dorothy met Edna

In the summer of 1943, walking in the English countryside with two WAC buddies, Dorothy came upon Mrs. Edna Griffiths walking her dog. Edna, a friendly widow, struck up a conversation. 

She asked Dorothy and her companions to join her and have a drink at Edna's father's home. Later, Edna asked permission to write Dorothy's parents, my grandparents Theodore "Teddy" Schwartz and Hermina "Minnie" Farkas Schwartz. 

Edna's letter to Dorothy's parents

Edna, a kind and thoughtful mother of five, realized how Dorothy's parents must worry about her--and decided to write a note of reassurance. In part, Edna's letter to my grandparents read:

I have had the very great pleasure of meeting your daughter Dorothy and I thought I would like to write and tell you how we enjoyed seeing her. Ours was the first English home she had been to and that makes me very thrilled.

I was taking my little Scottie dog for a walk and met Dorothy and her two friends. I was so anxious to meet them and we finished the evening at my father's home. I really think they enjoyed themselves and they were most interested in all we had to tell them. Since that evening we have met so many of your country women. How we do admire them! We all "fell" for them...

I am sure you all miss Dorothy but she will be happy with the English people, we're to make them feel at home but of course we are not so easy to know, that's what I think. I think we are all beginning to feel the strain of this terrible war... 

 I hope if Dorothy is ever short of a house during her leaves I hope she will come to us. My home is always hers while she is in England. She is really  a beautiful girl and I am sure you are both proud of her.

My best wishes to you both and may we soon see the end of this awful war. Yours very sincerely, Edna S. Griffiths

What happened next

I only have letters from Edna to my family, not letters from my family to Edna. But reading those letters, I can see that the correspondence went on for about two years. 

When Dorothy was moved to France and Belgium, she continued to write Edna and send gifts, such as silk stockings that were just about unavailable in wartime England. 

My grandparents were busy working in the small dairy store they owned in the Bronx, and so my mother Daisy--Dorothy's twin sister--quickly took over the correspondence with Edna. 

Edna's letters reveal thoughts and feelings about where she lived, coping as a widow, pride in her children, and hope as her country joined with the Allies and battled the Axis powers. The letters also show real interest in Dorothy and Daisy and family, and Edna's wish to visit New York City after the war. 

After consulting with a distant cousin of Edna's family, I am offering these handwritten letters to a museum in England. I want to preserve the letters for the sake of future generations and researchers interested in the inner thoughts of those on the British home front during World War II.

Amanuensis Monday: Mail from Staffordshire to the Bronx

My mother's twin sister, Dorothy Schwartz, was a WAC in WWII, serving in England and receiving the Bronze Star for "meritorious service in direct support of operations against the enemy." She was the historian for the WAC detachment, 9th Air Force, having joined the company in spring, 1943 and leaving it in summer, 1945, when the war was winding down.

At 24 years old, Dorothy was far from her parents' apartment in the Bronx, NY, for the very first time. It was a difficult separation for my mother, Daisy Schwartz, because she was so close to her twin. (Frequent letters to and fro helped ease the separation, I know.)

On August 11, 1943, Dorothy's parents (my grandparents), Theodore and Hermina Schwartz, received an unexpected but very welcome letter from Edna S. Griffiths at Mayfield House, Stone, Staffordshire, England. She wrote, in part:

I have had the very great pleasure of meeting your daughter Dorothy and I thought I would like to write and tell you how we enjoyed seeing her. Ours was the first English home she had been to and that makes me very thrilled.

I was taking my little Scottie dog for a walk and met Dorothy and her two friends. I was so anxious to meet them and we finished the evening at my father's home. I really think they enjoyed themselves and they were most interested in all we had to tell them. Since that evening we have met so many of your country women. How we do admire them! We all "fell" for them...

I am sure you all miss Dorothy but she will be happy with the English people, we're to make them feel at home but of course we are not so easy to know, that's what I think. I think we are all beginning to feel the strain of this terrible war...

I hope if Dorothy is ever short of a house during her leaves I hope she will come to us. My home is always hers while she is in England. She is really  a beautiful girl and I am sure you are both proud of her.

 My best wishes to you both and may we soon see the end of this awful war. Yours very sincerely,

Edna S. Griffiths

Edna and my grandparents exchanged letters a few more times until 1945, when Dorothy returned home. How lovely it must have been for my grandparents to know that their daughter had caring people she could visit and talk to during her time in England! Thank you, Edna Griffiths.