Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page A10

Page10A DemocratandChronicle. com ROCNews Top To Bottom 338-9865 www.toptobottom.tv Clogged Gutters? Wet Basement? Leaky Roof? WE DO IT ALL! Not valid with any other discount or coupon. No substitutions. Expires 22001713 After a decade in limb Arthur and Myrtle Schenk formerly of Rochester, both deceased finally home. AJuly 10 story in the Democrat and Chronicle discussed how a box full of photographs and letters from the ife ended up in the poss ession of Linda Whitney, a Rochester woman with a passion for forgotten history but no connection to the family.

As soon as the story ran, Theresa Plumart, the great-niece, started getting calls from family members, all with he same question: that ur Arthur A pparently, after Myrtle Schenk died about 12 years ago, the Crawford Street house passed out of the family and the new owner put the box of memories out to the curb, where Whitney found it and eventually pieced the family story tog ether. remarkable the tuff was still there at lumart said. really had given up all hope of anything coming out of that Last weekend, Whitney met with Plumart and other members of the Schenk family to hand ver the mementos. They ooked over the photo- raphs and letters together and reminisced together, each in their own way. I was packing it up and taking it over, I kind of felt sad, like I was saying goodbye to this Whitney said.

was weird. You get connected to people. But like home Whitney still has many other unconnected stories in her strange collection, a nd soon get more. After the Democrat and Chronicle story ran, several people contacted her about their own personal stories, including 88-year- old Dorothy Dwyer of Irondequoit. When Dwyer was rowing up in England, her family hosted foreign soldiers for Christmas dinner.

One such meal, with a Canadian serviceman, blossomed into a decades-long friendship between the families. Dwyer is that only survivor, and she asked if Whitney might ike to have the letters exchanged over the years. thought, my goodness, I wonder if be interested in Dwyer said. feel that someone was interested in them. I have lots of great friends, but I think the sort who would sit down and read these Whitney is exactly that sort.

The two have scheduled to meet. The Schenk family history photos of an old family dog, the fishing lodge, the houses lived in is secured, and lans are being made for its succession through the years. goodness there are people out there that do that kind of thing and try to actually get it back to the people it comes Plumart said. There were so many little family anecdotes and hings we laughed about and just lots of Twitter.com/CitizenMurphy Collector connects family with possessions Justin Murphy Staff writer Acollection of photos and letters one of which is seen here that recently came into Linda possession as been returned to family members. JAMIE PHOTOGRAPHER Linda Whitney.