When she removed the canvas from the front she could see the writing. Just how long it had been out of the family is anyone's guess. Older relatives may have knowledge of family heirlooms that perhaps are still in the family or that have been sold. Estate records may indicate who purchased a specific item at a sale, but the sale may have been many years ago and the item may have changed hands many times. This is the first time in my nearly twenty years of genealogy research that I learned of a former relative's item that was for sale.
Online auctions are a start, but it really is hit and miss.
The owner performed some type of Internet search and my page came up among the hits. Other search engines may also turn up various pages that I have created. You don't have to write for the Daily News to publicize your surnames or your genealogical interests and to have those items come up in the various search engines. There are genealogy sites and non-genealogy sites where individuals can perform searches and obtain links to various pages. The difficulty in this case was that the individual searching for me was not using one of the major genealogy websites.