An old birth certificate in its original 1941-dated envelope was found
on a Cambridge street, and help is needed to get it back into the hands
of family members.
By Greg Hunt
greg.hunt@ecm-inc.com
An old birth certificate in its original 1941-dated envelope was found on a Cambridge street, and help is needed to get it back into the hands of family members. 
Pictured: Cambridge resident Bob Potts is trying to get Elwood Wright’s birth certificate back to family members after he found it in great condition on Old South Main St. Wright was born June 16, 1940 and passed away Feb. 4, 1995.
Bob Potts and his fiancee, Dawn, were on their daily walk with their dog on March 24.
As usual, they were doing their good deed of picking up trash along their route.
Near the cemetery on Old Main Street on Cambridge’s south side, Potts picked up an old brown envelope in great condition, turned it over and saw read “Department of Commerce, Special Agent-Bureau of Census” on the return address section.
“That was a coincidence with the census going on. Then I looked at the postmark—Feb. 24, 1941. This thing hadn’t been sitting out too long on the street because it wasn’t even wet or anything. Inside was this birth certificate in perfect condition,” recalled Potts.
The birth certificate is for Elwood Hoover Wright, born June 16, 1940 in Kandiyohi County. His parents were Harold H. Wright and Verle A. Flann. Potts could not trace a valid driver’s license for Wright, but he did get tracking help from Jim Rostberg and Monica Broten at the Isanti County Veteran Services office. They found out through the Social Security Death Index that Wright died Feb. 4, 1995.
“My thing is if I can get it back to the family or whomever is connected to Elwood, that would be great,” said Potts. He can be reached at 612-390-6562.
