Meet the woman who spends her spare time reuniting unsuspecting families with lost heirlooms - free of charge.<br /><br />Chelsey Brown, 30, trawls flea markets and thrift shops for interesting items.<br /><br />She then uses her genealogy skills to trace the history and tries to find the owners.<br /><br />Chelsey, from Manhattan, New York City, US, claims to have returned 500 objects to thrilled households in the last two years.<br /><br />And she does it all for free - working as an interior designer to pay the bills.<br /><br />Chelsey decided to follow in the footsteps of her dad - a genealogist in 2021.<br /><br />She starts by looking in the genealogy record, by using information from an identifying mark on the object.<br /><br />This usually brings up a marriage certificate or another distinguishing legal document.<br /><br />She is then usually able to track down the owner - and contacts them about their artefact.<br /><br />Chelsey says most people think she is a “scam” at first.<br /><br />But she has only had one person turn away their artefact since becoming an heirloom detective in mid-2021.<br /><br />Chelsey has found hundreds of interesting items - including love letters from decades ago.<br /><br />And she says ‘love bombing’ and ‘ghosting’ - mooted as new terms - were just as prevalent then. <br /><br />Love bombing is a controlling tactic characterised by excessive attention and affection.<br /><br />Ghosting is when someone ends a relationship suddenly without an explanation and communication. <br /><br />Chelsey said: “Love bombing was a thing 200 years ago. I keep the data from my genealogy research.<br /><br />“Heartbreak, affairs and family drama were all still happening then.<br /><br />“I think it comforts people to know if they are don’t get any contact with someone after going on a date that the exact same happened to some in 1850 – but with letters.”<br /><br />Chelsey has also been able to reunite a family with World War II love letters after they were passed onto her when they were found during a house renovation.<br /><br />She’s also been able to find many Holocaust items, of which she says the returns are “emotional”.<br /><br />And Chelsey loves finding teenage diaries and finding out what happened to the authors after the diary was written.<br /><br />She said: “I found this amazing one written by a women who was in a long distance relationship. It was full of love letters and poems.<br /><br />“They decided to end the relationship but then I found out they got back together years later and are married with six kids. It’s really exciting returning them to the families.”<br /><br />Chelsey says she finds it fascinating how much hasn’t changed in hundreds of years.<br /><br />She said: “Red flags haven’t changed for hundreds of years.<br /><br />“And female friendships – they craved a feeling of belonging and of being wanted as we do now.”<br /><br />Chelsey is releasing a time capsule book this spring - and has no plans to stop reuniting items with families.
