A heirloom hunter made a grim discovery from their past after finding an apparent love letter between a 12-year-old girl and her "uncle" in his 60s.
TikToker Chelsey Brown, 28, from New York, US, discovered the note dating back to 1931 at her local flea market.
The harrowing letter detailed an illicit affair between the child and a man believed to be 50 years older than her.
The young girl refers to the man as "uncle", though Chelsey found no blood relatives or family tree that connects the pair.
The discovery has left both the woman and TikTok users feeling uneasy, with the clip going viral with over 605,600 views so far.
“My reaction was one of shock and confusion," Chelsea told NeedToKnow.online.
"First, the shock of this letter, that I thought was just going to be from niece to uncle, which turned into a passionate letter declaring intimate feelings.
“Next, was emotion after finding out the age difference and social status of the 'uncle'.
"Finally, confusion as I couldn’t find a blood relationship, but my thoughts are that the parents could have been friends with the man, hence why she called him, 'uncle'.
“This man, in 1931, was a well-known furniture designer.
"The letter made it very clear that this girl was infatuated with this man and that they had been intimate."
Chelsey's 142,300 followers on TikTok (@chelseyibrown) were simply stunned.
“Woah what a find,” said one user while another put: “Oh ok… wait. What? I thought the niece and uncle were near age but not 12 and 60.”
"That is disgusting," added another.
Some users where quick to point out how the age of marriage during the 1930s would have been considerably younger than it is today.
"In 1931 people married at 14-15 so she having a crush at 12 I think [would have been] accepted at that time," said one user.
"Considering the time the letter was written it wasn't uncommon to marry young." commented another user.
One user said: "Its difficult to put todays moral standards on a different era."
Chelsea tried to contact the woman's family, who she has not named for privacy reasons.
In a follow up video she explained why she had chosen not to identify those involved.
She said: “In today’s world, this would be called grooming and abuse, which clearly this was, even 100 years ago.
“I will say that after this 'relationship' ended, she went on having a good life, marriage and a son who is currently still alive today.
“I was able to find the son and send him the letter.
"He was very grateful for this piece of his mother’s past.
"He was a bit shocked by the information at first, but was happy to learn the truth and more info about his mother’s childhood.
“The son doesn’t have Wi-Fi or a computer, so I was able to send the letter to him through a friend of his who manages his family’s genealogy on MyHeritage.com.
“On the surface, genealogy may seem like it’s only about building family trees - but it’s so much more than that.
"Every family has a secret, mystery, or story, just waiting to be uncovered.
“Genealogy is the only way to connect with people from our past - and there’s something quite beautiful about that."
