PALATINE (AP) — A suburban Chicago organization has helped a lost World War II prayer book find its way back to the family of the American soldier it once belonged to.

The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald (http://bit.ly/XmJvgz ) reported Sunday that a French boy found the tattered book belonging to James Hoban in 1944. He rediscovered it decades later and through several connections, the Palatine Sister Cities Association began its mission to return it.

Ken Asmann is a member of the group that promotes international ties. He and others used military and genealogical records to locate Hoban's family. They discovered that the soldier survived the war but died in the 1970s.