A TikTok ‘heirloom hunter’ who has made it her mission to reunite families with artefacts from their past was shocked when she uncovered a letter revealing a relationship between a niece and her "uncle".

Chelsey Brown, 28, from New York City, US, discovered the letter, dated 1932, at her local flea market.

The harrowing note detailed an illicit affair between a 12-year-old girl and a man believed to be in his 60s.

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 heirloom hunter 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.

“Oh ok… wait. What? I thought the niece and uncle were near age but not 12 and 60.” commented another user.

"That is disgusting," added another user.

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 wasnt 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."

Contact [email protected] to license this or any Jam Press video.

Make money from your videos!

Submit footage to Jam Press https://www.jampress.co.uk/submit-you...

Subscribe, Like, or Follow Jam Press

YouTube: https://bit.ly/2NaOsaB
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jampressltd
Instagram: www.instagram.com/jampressltd
Twitter:   / jampressltd   .
.
.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, Music, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Reference: https://bit.ly/3l8GUbc
Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976:
1)This video has no negative impact.
2)This video is also for entertainment purposes.
3)It is transformative in nature.