CEDAR FALLS - The search is on for the family of Sarah and Emma Black.

They aren't lost children at the swimming pool. They are relatives, possibly a mother and daughter, who lived in Ohio in the 1880s.

And a Cedar Falls woman is determined to find their descendants.

Lacey Christensen has always been interested in genealogy, old books and antiques. A bookshelf in her living room holds first-edition classics and rare books, and other antiques dot shelves on the wall. She has been on trips around the country to find records and tombstones of her own ancestors.

So when Christensen found five letters in a musical reader from 1874, all from various dates in the 1880s, she knew if someone else felt as strongly about personal history as she did, they'd want them back.

"If it was me, and it was my great-great-grandmother, what I would give to read her life in the day," Christensen said.

She doesn't remember when she got the book but didn't look through it until five or six years ago, when she was looking to have her old books appraised. One letter was stuck in the cover and the others were nestled between pages throughout the book.

A few weeks ago, Christensen set out to find the family they belong to and return them. She has been mining the letters for clues.

"It kind of put me on a find kick," Christensen said.

The first letter is dated July 14, 1880, to Emma Black in Adams County, Ohio, from a cousin whose name looks to be Hansen in Thayes, Kan. He mentions Uncle Will Ralstins and Uncle John Dennings. The second was from another cousin, Linnie Foster in Abilene Dickinson County, Kan., also to Emma Black, on Dec. 20, 1882. She mentions school and the name Uncle Clark Flemming.

The third, dated Aug. 1, 1886, is from Emma in Humboldt, Ill., to her "mother and cousin," but addressed only to Sarah Black in West Union, Ohio. She mentions a trip to Mt. Auburn fondly: "I think Iowa is the prettiest place ever was." She also names John several times, as if he might be her husband. The fourth letter is addressed to Aunt Sarah Black dated Aug. 15, 1886, but is hard to make out. A fifth letter has not yet been recovered after a move to and from Christensen's sister's home.

But even all those clues have been frustrating for Christensen. Black was and continues to be a very popular last name, something Christensen has found out the hard way. Emma and Sarah also were common names in their time, further compounding matters.

Christensen also thought of the possibility that Sarah and Emma might be related to James Black, who founded the Black's department store in the late 1800s.

Courier archive and Internet searches yield no definitive answers, either. In one online account, the names John, Sarah and Emma Black appear in a genealogy of the Foos family, dating back to the 1800s in Ohio, but all three are siblings.

Christensen even called several dozen Blacks living near West Union, Ohio, finding no definite answers.

"I just want the rightful owner - not somebody who says, 'I'm a Black,'" said Christensen.

If she can find proof of descendants, she's happy to turn over the 120-year-old letters.

"I would love to be able to read something like (the letters) about my family," she said.