Mystery solved: Box of keepsakes found in Vernon finds its family

VERNON – Lorna’s Box has found its way home.

It’s a conclusion Vernon resident Jack Elliman has been working on for the last ten years — ever since he found the mysterious box of keepsakes in the basement of a local business. The search for the family of Lorna Rothwell Thompson went cold years ago, but Elliman recently took to social media in hopes of finally reuniting Thompson’s box of photos and jewellery with her family.

“It was shortly after the media blitz that happened,” Elliman says. “I was contacted by this genealogist and she’s like, ‘I love this stuff, I’d love to work on this for you.’ I said yes please.”

She was able to track down Lorna’s great, great niece in an online ancestry database and gave Elliman the contact information.

“It was really cool to speak with (Thompson's great niece) on the phone. It was kind of surreal. I didn’t expect it to happen. I spent so much time ten years ago trying to find this family and had kind of given up on it. When I re-found the box and decided to throw it out on social media and see what results we could have, I was still a bit leery and thought it was far-fetched but it worked out pretty well.”

The woman was elated and ‘blown away’ by the news, Elliman says.

“She was super excited to tell her mom,” Elliman says. “There are pictures of her and Lorna together… I actually spoke to (the mom) on the phone and she says ‘there’s pictures of me in the photos you put on Facebook'.”

Lorna’s relatives, who are from Washington, were so thrilled they decided to travel to Vernon to meet Elliman and retrieve the family treasures.

“They’re finally going to get reunited,” Elliman says.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.