American Irene Cornish is still impressed and asks the question: how did the found document end up in New Jersey – on the other end of North Carolina, where Irene lives? She also did not expect such a huge number of people to come together to find her.
In North Carolina, a 65-year-old woman never had any acquaintances or relatives, and her great-grandmother's birth certificate was hidden in a frame with an old photograph that someone turned over to a New Jersey commission.
More precisely, the frame was brought to a special store where people donate things for sale with no hope of profit: all proceeds are donated to charity.
Before displaying a product on the counter, sellers disinfect it. In the case of the frame, they removed the glass and the photograph from it for this, and found a hidden marriage certificate there.
A document that turned yellow over time showed that Catherine Heyvey and Devorth Cornish were married in April 1872 in New Jersey.
The store employees posted a copy of the document on social networks, and at the same time registered on special genealogical sites. They did this without any hope of finding the descendants of the newlyweds, hoping only to tell about the unusual find.
It soon became clear that Catherine and Devorth were Irene's great-grandmother and great-grandfather, whose coordinates were listed on one of the Internet resources.
Having received news of the unexpected find, Irene said that she had heard something about her great-grandmother from her relatives. It is known that she came to the States from Ireland. But about her great-grandfather, who, in fact, gave his last name and Irene herself, she did not know anything at all. Even his great-granddaughter did not know his name.
Now Irene intends to closely study the history of her ancestors.
– People usually just read history, but our ancestors are our own history. she says.
