Letter from Cleveland, Ohio, 1847, Johannes Rapparlie:
With great joy I pick up the pen to let you know about our matters like all of us are here amongst each other in Cleveland. We have already waited for two to three years for a letter from you since my brother has left from home as we have already written two letters to you and not yet received answer. Therefore, we thought you didn’t want to write us answer but when my sister came from Germany she was insulted because you hadn’t gotten any answer from us.
Email from Freinsheim, Germany, 2009, Angela Weber:
i asked my mother to please send me the letters from Freinsheim and the little package didn’t arrive for some days now… i will ask at the post office tomorrow, maybe because of our new address???
[then a month later] What has happened, the box with the letters had been lost in the German mail and only arrived last week after we had initiated search and everything. The outside paper was ripped off and the parcel could luckily be identified because of the contents. We waited for 4 weeks and called here and there, the mail recently has a bad reputation with reliability. I suspected they want to force people into using the more expensive services with insurance attached. I also suspected theft because of the value of the old stamps, and it was the horror, to think that way. Well, everything good now, but I am really hesitant to send the letters again.
Letters lost and found. Like history. Some say we should only look forward, but we aren’t the first, nor will we be the last …