trying to reunite a letter to its rightful owner

[c011een.livejournal.com]

UPDATE: i hand delivered the letter this morning to 93 lexington and emily markham's roommate answered the door.  hooray!  thanks for all your help, especiallybadseed1980 for her stellar detective work.



this is kind of a long shot, but i've exhausted all other methods i can think of...

i received a handwritten letter from lesotho, africa addressed to an "emily markham".  i gave it to the post office to have it redelivered, then got it back again, then google-mapped the address and tried to hand deliver it only to find that there is no 96 lexington ave in somerville.  i left it in the mailbox of the house that *should* have been 96 lexington.  alas, i just got the letter back again yesterday. 

so if your name is emily markham or your address is similar to 96 lexington ave and you have a friend in lesotho, please reply. 

there is a 96 lexington ave #2 in cambridge, so i'll try that if i don't get any responses here. 

thanks in advance for your help!

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated to see if this works. There's a good chance it might, since some people are very well connected and know a lot of people.

Did some digging...

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Try 93 Lexington Ave. #2. I found that address connected to someone by that name.

Re: Did some digging...

[c011een.livejournal.com]

interesting...out of curiosity, how did you find that out?

Re: Did some digging...

[ron_newman]

pipl.com and zabasearch.com are often good for this kind of thing, but I came up empty at both sites this time. I too am curious how badseed1980 did this.

I do remember one other time here in davis_square when someone successfully reunited a misdelivered package with its intended (and very young) recipient.

Re: Did some digging...

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I work as a researcher, and have access to some search tools where you can look up addresses by resident name. I just plugged in that name and searched within Massachusetts.

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

You might try posting on craigslist as well. I'm not exactly sure where on craigslist to post something like this. Perhaps "missed connections" although this isn't the typical kind of post.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

That's so weird. If you're not at 96 Lexington, why do you keep getting it back?

[c011een.livejournal.com]

my street number is also 96, but i don't live on lexington ave or any street with a similar name, so i have no clue why it keeps coming here.

[ron_newman]

Is there a bar code at the bottom of the letter? Once the post office has put that on the letter, it will probably keep coming back to you unless you mark through the bar code (or otherwise make it unreadable).

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Yes. This is correct. If you do readdress it to 93 Lexington Ave., be sure to mark out the barcode or it will just wind up in your mailbox.

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know if there a Lexington Ave listserv where this message can be posted? I remember hearing about one; tried looking in Yahoo but it's not there.

[ron_newman]

Yes! Friends of Lexington Park Yahoo Group. There's another link to it on the davis_square profile page. That would be an excellent place to post this request. (And if you know of any other locally-relevant mailing lists or forums, let me know and I'll put them on the profile page as well.)

[ron_newman]

Glad to hear of your success with this!

THANK YOU!!

[emarkham.livejournal.com]

I got the letter this morning and was so happy to receive it. Sorry for all of the commotion, but I greatly appreciate everyone's effort to get it into my hands eventually. Just so you all know, my friend in Lesotho is doing fine. Thanks again, everyone!

Re: THANK YOU!!

[ron_newman]

Wow! Major win here. And welcome to the davis_square community.