My latest orphan heirloom article concerning the return of an inscribed fountain pen that was owned by William Lee Bell, a pilot who was killed in WWII, is now in the current issue of Ancestry Magazine:
There's a little bit of a postscript that's not in the article itself since it occurred more recently. Lt. Bell's plane was recovered in 1998 and there's an exhibit about it at the General Patton Museum in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg. As part of my research, I located a family member who had just recently come into possession of a photo of Lt. Bell and was kind enough to email me a scanned copy. When the article came out, Jim Gilmer, who had submitted the case to me, saw the photo -- and informed me that the museum had been looking for a photo of the pilot to complete the exhibit. And now, thanks to the family and Jim, the museum has it. Here's part of the exhibit that Jim generously sent me images of. It's nice to know that Lt. Bell's pen has been returned to his family, that his image has been sent to Luxembourg, and that his memory is being protected on both sides of the pond.
