His 91-year-old grandfather had a heart attack last June and finally moved out of the rundown family homestead in Wilkinsburg. Randal Davis made trips from Media, near Philadelphia, to help his family clean out the place, distribute some items among relatives and sell others.

	Randal Davis' Empire dresser. Click photo for larger image.

He hopes for a different fate for one particular old piece of furniture.

It's an Empire dresser, made of cherry and other woods.

Truth be told, "it's kind of ugly," he says, "with big glass knobs on it."

His mother, Suzanne Davis, who grew up with it, is neither attached nor attracted to it. It's so big and so heavy, she figured they'd just leave it there.

But what matters is what was inside.

Inside the dresser, in a box in one drawer, Randal found a handwritten note and more. The contents tell one story of where the dresser came from, and may launch another about what happens to it next.

The house, on Holland Avenue, was a grand one when it was built in 1883 by one William Anderson. He happened to be the editor of Commercial Gazette, as this newspaper was then known. (He was Randal's great-great-great-grandfather.)

At the house in 1892, Anderson's youngest daughter, Grace, married Charles Highberger, who tragically died of pneumonia only 10 months later. Grace inherited the house and was running it as a boarding house when Suzanne and her parents moved in around 1949. (Grace was Suzanne's great-great-aunt.)

At some point, Grace wrote and signed the note, tracing the antique's, quite literally, roots.

"This dresser was made of wild cherry wood, which grew on the farm of Daniel Funk in Westmoreland Co.," she wrote. She explained that when Funk's daughter, Mary, married her late husband's grandfather, Jacob Highberger, the chest was built to be part of Mary's wedding trousseau.

With the note, Randal Davis found framed tintypes of "Jacob H. and his wife," as Grace identified them on the back of the note. He also found most of the bits of curly-face veneer that had broken off the dresser. He even found a slab of wood from which he thinks the veneer was shaved, and it's signed -- what looks like "John Sloman." Apparently Aunt Grace had saved everything so the dresser could be made whole.

Suzanne Davis, who recognized the note's handwriting, had no idea the dresser had a history, but says it's just like Aunt Grace to have preserved it.

Once she knew, Suzanne's feelings about the relic changed.

She and her son decided to try to return it to the family, to whom they're related only through marriage, that it came from. And so last weekend, they placed a want ad in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

If they can find an interested relative, they will give her or him the dresser for free. The note and the photos will go with it. Randal will even deliver the dresser, currently in storage out East, if the recipient will pay for his gas.

"I didn't want to just sell this to a stranger," he says. "I'm just looking to return it to its rightful owner."

If nothing else, the clunky old curio has spurred them to do some more family research.

Suzanne has done some sleuthing on Internet genealogy sites. She found the original owners, Jacob and Mary, and believes she found one discrepancy: Her great-great-aunt wrote that the couple were married in 1808, but their birth dates lead her to think it had to be in the 1830s. She confirmed, as is in the note, that their son, David, married a Katherine Boyd.

Suzanne also believes she has found one living descendent, a young woman, and has sent her a letter, but she's not sure it reached her: "To scarf up someone with an e-mail address or a phone number is very hard."

The Davises figured placing an ad in this newspaper might have a chance of reaching a relative in the region, or someone who might know of one.

Other clues also point to Westmoreland County: On one 1867 map, Suzanne found a "D. Funk" property near Sutersville, and she believes Jacob Highberger was born on a Homestead Farm in Sewickley Township there.

Other correspondence indicates that the Highberger family owned a Wilkinsburg hardware/builders supply store.

The Davises have gotten no calls on the dresser so far.

Not even antique dealers have been interested in it. One suggested breaking it up and keeping the solid cherry top. Randal doesn't want to do that, but he's considering putting it up for auction on eBay if no descendent claims it.

In the photos, the original owners, Jacob and Mary, "look grim and pale. But it's touching," says Suzanne of the story so far.

She remains hopeful for a happy ending: "There's somebody somewhere who would love to have this piece."