Fake documents - ideas please

With all the scrapbooking craze, I’ve promised my teenage daughters we’ll do a scrapbook journal of a relative — a NON-EXISTENT relative. We’ve decided he was born in the late 1920s and disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I’m looking for ideas for relatively easily faked up items to go in such a memoir - letters, newspaper clippings, etc.

I have:

  • A range of old books from most decades (1890 to 1970) picked up from the local 50c pile for paper. There’s some blank paper but I’ve grabbed an old blender and I’m going to try pulping, de-inking, and making some larger sheets.

  • A range of coins from a wide variety of countries and decades (from TradeMe) to include as mementos. I’ve also tried some experiments with electroplating them to make them less recognisable and soldering on a bail to make a medal.

  • A small number of stamps from various countries.

  • A manual typewriter (TradeMe again) just for more convincing lettering where needed.

  • A range of paper aging methods, from the simple coffee to potassium permanganate and hydrochloric acid. I’m planning on setting up an ozone chamber as that’s supposed to be quite nifty.

  • Supplies of paper, card, carbon paper, fabric, etc.

  • The usual laser printer, inkjet printer, flatbed scanner. Paintshop Pro for image processing. Paper cutting tools including various shaped punches.

  • A maximum budget of about $100.

So …

Any ideas?

(At least in this forum I shouldn’t be instantly faced with ‘Why on Earth would you do that?’).

Charles / OmnivoreNZ

A proposal letter. These can be quite interesting - I read one by a great grand uncle which, in addition to the “I love, respect and adore you” bumf, also had an immense amount of practical information about how well his farm was doing, and that his adored could be assured of a comfortable room and board by marrying him.

Extracts from a travel diary.

Old concert programmes/flyers.

Train tickets with cryptic notes jotted on the back.

How does an ozone chamber work? And how do you set one up?

It sounds like quite a cool project, by the way.

If he was born before 1927 then he’d have been 18 towards the end of WWII, so he might have gone to war. Some younger men pretended to be older to go. That’d be an interesting way to study that bit of history, researching what typically happened to young men caught up in it. He might have met a girl overseas. And you could include relevant news clippings, or his draft letter, etc.

school photo, swimming certificate, school reports, athletics ribbons

Train tickets with cryptic notes jotted on the back.

Now that’s an especially interesting thought!

How does an ozone chamber work? And how do you set one up?

The easiest method is probably a sealed box with a high voltage source and a spark gap. Sparks will generate ozone and also ultraviolet, both of which tend to age paper quite well. The main problems are avoiding generating radio interference and making sure the whole thing doesn’t catch fire.

Mark Hofmann (the rare book dealer who faked the Mormon diaries) was supposed to have used ozone to age his fakes but one source I read says he dunked them in an aquarium and ran an electric current through it. I’m not sure what that’s supposed to do. It certainly wouldn’t generate ozone.

I was thinking of having had him fighting in the war - but not in the regular army. Perhaps he went off and fought in the Winter War (with Finland against Russia) or was doing something undercover.

Forgot to mention - relatives on that side were British so he was probably born in England. However with all the missionaries and colonial administrators amongst my relatives he could easily have been born somewhere strange (both my parents were British but I have two Kenyan born brothers).

Sounds like you’re doing pretty good. One of those coins could be his “lucky coin”.

How about some original poetry in his own hand? A confession letter he never sent?

Wish I was one of your teenage daughters, this sounds like a really fun way to skew history. Have your family seen ‘Forgotten Silver’?

How about including a collection of his favourite recipes collected from far off lands? Consider using mispelled names and ingredients to make it feel more authentic. e.g. use Garhum masahluh for garam masala. That way your daughters could go as far as recreating the recipes.

Perhaps you could investigate people who disappeared like this for inspiration ? For example, Jim Thompson lived in Bangkok, and disappeared in Malaysia in 1967. His house is now a museum in Bangkok - complete with restaurant, I wholeheartedly recommend the pomelo salad :wink:

[quote=“OmnivoreNZ”]I was thinking of having had him fighting in the war - but not in the regular army. Perhaps he went off and fought in the Winter War (with Finland against Russia) or was doing something undercover. [/quote]Possibly taken prisoner, with an escape and joining the guerillas? New Zealand had a big involvement in the defense and resistance of Crete during WWII - the war cemetery at Souda Bay has about a third of the graves marked as Kiwis, it’s a very moving place. Maybe he was an Englishman who was posted there, and liked the sound of NZ from talking with his mates, and emigrated here after the war.

(Although, of course, New Zealanders were posted all over Europe during the war. I can remember an account by one of the governors of Colditz, and right near the end he mentions a couple of soldiers from the Maori Battalion who went off as orderlies to a bunch of evacuated officers.)

Bermuda triangle! He was lost in the Bermuda triangle! Maybe he was a pilot.

If your wanting to stretch the time he joined up, he could have been involved with the strategic operations executive working in Berlin during the occupation, perhaps trying to infiltrate ODESSA or beating the russians to important research data conducted by the germans during the war, this could take him into the early 50’s.

that would put him into the services both as undercover and not as part of the regular forces.

Or he could have spied for the Germans, been caught and got shot for treason.

That’s why nobody talks about him :smiling_imp:

[quote=“Wulfen”]beating the russians to important research data conducted by the germans during the war[/quote]Ooh, ooh. There’s a really cool book called Soldier No More by Anthony Price which is about that.

Steph

Papers Past has scanned newspapers from different regions, dating back to the 19th century.

Some are even searchable. This could help you provide historical documents that are “real”.

That’s a great website, but it only seems to go up to 1915. Maybe because of copyright?

Papers Past has scanned newspapers from different regions, dating back to the 19th century.

Hmmm, a google search on [“digitised * newspapers”] finds 42000 hits. For instance the Irish Times is searchable from 1859 to 7 days ago. An excellent vein of snarfable info. Thanks.

And thanks to everyone who’s posted. I’ve got some excellent ideas to pursue.

:slight_smile: