Michigan neighbors solve mystery of a postcard delivered 100 years late

The postcard addressed to Mrs. Roy McQueen finally arrived at its destination — 100 years after it was sent.

Brittany Keech of Belding, Michigan, found the card mixed in with the bills and advertisements in her mailbox on Sept. 8. "At first, I didn't think much of it, other than that it's old and interesting," Keech told The Washington Post. "But then I took a closer look." She saw that on the front, there was a Halloween illustration, featuring a black cat, owl, and grey-haired witch; on the back, there was a one-cent stamp and an Oct. 29, 1920, postmark.

The letter, written to "Dear Cousins," mentions the writer's mother's "awful lame knees." It ended with a question about whether "Roy got his pants fixed yet." The postcard was signed by Flossie Burgess. Wanting to get this card to someone related to the family, Keech turned to a local Facebook group called Positively Belding for help.

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People quickly started leaving comments in response to her post, with librarian Robby Peters offering to do some genealogy research. In the 1920 census, he found that a Roy McQueen lived at Keech's address, and McQueen was married to a Nora Murdock. It appears her niece, Florence "Flossie" Burgess, sent the postcard.

Peters wasn't able to find any direct descendants, but another amateur genealogist, Sheryl Ackerman, got involved, and discovered a great-niece of Roy and Nora's. Ackerman put the woman in touch with Keech, and she is "very interested in having the postcard," Keech told the Post. It's still unclear why it took 100 years for the card to arrive, but a few postal workers commented on Keech's Facebook post and said it's likely the piece of paper fell and became stuck somewhere, and was found a century later when the post office was renovated. Catherine Garcia