Calgary genealogy society working to uncover secrets of thrift store mystery box

A snap from a telegraphers unification get together. An Italian eating house computer menu from Toronto. A newspaper clipping covering a graduating class of Royal Canadian Air Force engineers.

Those are among the articles, including personal letters, postcards, Christmas cards and assorted memorabilia, found in a box given to a Calgary genealogical society in May by a local thrift store.

Since then, researchers with the Alberta Family Histories Society have been trying to figure out the significance of the items contained within, what ties them together, and whether anybody might want them back.

The researchers believe they’ve figured out who the box belonged to — a woman named Marion Gordon Atkinson, who passed away in Calgary in 2020 — but that’s only one part of the mystery.

“We'd like to answer who the box was for, and if there's anything that we can give them back, because there's family photos,” said Sharon White, a director with the Alberta Family Histories Society.

She’s also looking to preserve any items of historical significance, and deliver them to the appropriate museums or people.

“So it either gets home or gets where it needs to go," she said.

White, whose husband is a retired military member, has taken a particular interest in a 1942 photo depicting members of the Royal Canadian Air Force 400 Squadron, many of whom the society has discovered were from Alberta.

The group has uncovered the stories of those in the photo, including what missions they were on and what aircraft they flew, the awards they won, and who was injured or passed away in combat.

Frank Edward “Bitsy” Grant, one of two Calgarians depicted in the photo, assumed command of the squadron in 1942. He died the following year after crashing his Supermarine Spitfire into a German field at the age of 28.

Fellow Calgarian Tony Stephens had been on the Queen's University boxing and wrestling teams before becoming a pilot with the squadron. After the war, he continued his career as a pilot, including taking part in air shows.

The connection between the people depicted in the photos and the person who put together the box remains unclear. White said the owner was most likely distantly related to one of the pilots, but that further research is needed to confirm that.

WorldServe Thrift Store in southwest Calgary is where the box first ended up.

Store manager Sarah Peters said “we get all sorts of unique things here,” but that many of the items they receive hold too much significance to end up on the sales floor.

“There's stuff that we can sell; there's stuff that we can't sell,” she said. “And so when we got this item, we were like, ‘This isn't something we would sell in our store.’”

The store often receives war memorabilia like medals and correspondence from soldiers.

“My son is in the military, and so I put myself in that position, that if this was me, would I want someone to find me if they found a letter that he maybe had wrote me?” Peters said. 

“It hurt my heart if we didn't give it right back to the people that it should go to, or try to find the family.”

That’s why she reached out to the Alberta Family Histories Society, who she knew would be able to do it justice.

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White said piecing together puzzles like this is part of what makes genealogy such an endearing activity.

“As genealogists, we love a good mystery or puzzle, and we take what information we can find from different sources and basically track, dig down, verify and reverify, and then see if we can figure this out,” she said.

The Alberta Family Histories Society has been researching the box’s contents and the people connected to it since they received it in May. They expect to continue studying it and contacting potential connections for the foreseeable future.

Reporter/Editor

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