Another possibility is that the family knowingly gave, sold, or discarded it to someone from whom the OP then acquired it. And there may be several hands in between the family and the OP.
After a relative of mine died and my siblings and I were clearing out the place she lived and dividing up the posessions (as she had intended us to do), I commented that we were all standing at the headwaters of the Great River Ebay....
And this happens commonly enough when someone dies with a possession-packed house or apartment or even a room in a nursing home. It was Uncle's or Grandpa's knife, but no one in the family wants it, so out it goes. Decisions like that may be regretted later, but at the time and faced with a welter of things, all with memories attached, the survivors just need to get on with the clearing out. The landlord or the nursing home needs the space, and everything must be gone by tomorrow evening. So it goes.
Major Jack Miller may have been the original person to whom it was issued, but that's only a reasonable guess, and who knows how his family felt about this part of his things?
After a relative of mine died and my siblings and I were clearing out the place she lived and dividing up the posessions (as she had intended us to do), I commented that we were all standing at the headwaters of the Great River Ebay....
And this happens commonly enough when someone dies with a possession-packed house or apartment or even a room in a nursing home. It was Uncle's or Grandpa's knife, but no one in the family wants it, so out it goes. Decisions like that may be regretted later, but at the time and faced with a welter of things, all with memories attached, the survivors just need to get on with the clearing out. The landlord or the nursing home needs the space, and everything must be gone by tomorrow evening. So it goes.
Major Jack Miller may have been the original person to whom it was issued, but that's only a reasonable guess, and who knows how his family felt about this part of his things?
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