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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SYNCHRONCITY, post: 1995513, member: 6283&quot;]There was a discussion on the ephemera board about unusual things people found hidden and I told the story of what I found. Someone told me I should create my own thread so here I am.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s my story:</p><p><br /></p><p>I really got interested in collecting antique Victorian cdv and tintype photos a few years ago. I never bother collecting photos that were taken after the 19th Century unless they are given to me for free as I find no interest in more contemporary photos. One night I was on a website called shopgoodwill.com. It is an online auction site similar to ebay where multiple Goodwill thrift stores all over America auction off their items instead of selling them in their brick and mortar shops.</p><p><br /></p><p>I saw a listing for this photograph and almost hit the back button because it was contemporary. Then I spied on the handsome gentleman with the doe eyes and the shy smile. I thought he was handsome and felt drawn to him for some reason I could not explain. Maybe he was my type?, lol Back in the day I would have probably been swooning over him, ha ha. The auction was won by me and I was the only one that bid on it. Usually I get excited when I win auctions and can&#039;t wait for my items to arrive, but this time I was not really excited at all. When it arrived, the glass panel on the frame was filthy. When I went to slide the panel out to clean the glass, a bunch of letters and little photos came spilling out.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I picked them up I saw that they were POW letters from Shanghai War Prisoner Camp in China. Also there were little photo booth photos of him and an old tattered calendar from 1938. I could not believe my eyes! How did they get in there? His heartbroken mother must have kept them safe for all those years behind the frame.</p><p><br /></p><p>Apparently he was a civilian contractor on Wake Island helping to build an American Air Base along with the US Marines. He was taken prisoner along with the marines and spent his time in two POW camps, one in Shanghai and one in Osaka (Tsumori) Japan. Sadly he died there.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was able to find two documents on his cause of death. One was an unclassified US Government file that said he died of cerebral malaria. Another document I found on a US Tsumori (Osaka, Japan), POW website said he died of pneumonia. I have enclosed photos of what was contained behind the frame.</p><p><br /></p><p>His memorial page with all of his family&#039;s names listed are on findagrave:</p><p><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66338575/charles-austin-moe" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66338575/charles-austin-moe" rel="nofollow">https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66338575/charles-austin-moe</a></p><p><br /></p><p>More info I found on him:</p><p><a href="http://mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/osaka/tsumori_13B/OSA-13_Deceased_RG24Bx6.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/osaka/tsumori_13B/OSA-13_Deceased_RG24Bx6.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/osaka/tsumori_13B/OSA-13_Deceased_RG24Bx6.pdf</a></p><p><br /></p><p>I found his name on the findagrave website and added his picture to it in 2015. Someone (not a relative of his) had a memorial page up there for him. His parents names were on there and so were his siblings. I tried to do research to find living relatives of him, but do not have a paid ancestry.com account to get some more information. I am unwilling to pay $99 or more for them to release that information. In my opinion Ancestry.com pretty much holds family records hostage unless you pay up.</p><p><br /></p><p>I had already made a youtube video showing what I found and sadly nobody has come forth with anymore information except for what I already have come across on my own. I am not good at research and do not even know what sites I would need to go to in order to get free information to do a little more digging. Genealogy research is not my forte.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the information I have been able to get thus far, showing and reading his POW letters and seeing if posting it will help me obtain more information to try to see if I could locate living relatives of his to share this info with them. Maybe one of you can help me as I am sure at least one of you may have an ancestry.com account or be much more knowledgeable when it comes to researching.</p><p><br /></p><p>I want to thank you all in advance for your help.</p><p>RIP Charles Austin Moe</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]247643[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]247644[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]247645[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]247646[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]247647[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]247648[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]247649[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]247650[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]247651[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]247652[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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