A man’s treasured possession, a wedding album of his parents, dating back to 1957, was stolen from a storage unit; he thought he would never see it again. But when the thief cast the album aside on the street near Eva’s Kitchen in Wakefield, the restaurant owner found it. And so began a beautiful story about people’s goodness, and how one man was reunited with some of the last remaining photos of his parents.
A Stolen Wedding Album
Eva’s Kitchen’s owners shared the news that they had found the album in a post on Facebook on August 26. They posted photos from the couple’s wedding day, a handwritten page, and the weathered cover of the album.
Along with the photos, they wrote, “Hi everyone I found this old wedding book/album outside, behind Éva’s Kitchen. It looks quite old and may have a lot of sentimental value to someone. I’m posting it here in case the owner or their family recognises it. If you recognise it, it can be collected from Éva’s Kitchen,184 Kirkgate. Please share so we can hopefully find its owner.”
Unfortunately, they did not find the album’s owner. The story was covered in the local media, and amateur historian Anne-Marie Fawcett saw it and offered her services, People reports. In an interview with BBC News, Fawcett discussed how she approached identifying the people in the photograph.
“One of the names that jumped out of me was Maureen Bullivant,” she said, noting how she had read the name in the album. “An unusual name like that is a researcher’s dream. If she’d have been Smith, I might not have touched it, but she was Bullivant. It’s not a name I’m familiar with and certainly not a Wakefield name.”
The Dedication of One Amateur Detective
Fawcett initially thought this could be the bride’s name, but after checking the online register and marriage index records, she discovered the woman in the photo was not her. But it wasn’t a dead end either: Bullivant had witnessed another couple’s wedding. This led her to find the Wadsley Parish Church in Sheffield, where Bullivant’s parents were married.
“It’s a place I’d never heard of, so when I looked at the faded list I couldn’t make it out, but as soon as I got that information I could see it,” she told BBC News. “It’s like those paint books you’d get as a kid when you put water over the page, and the image would appear. It all of a sudden made sense.”
With photo enhancement, she found the name Barbara Parr, and eventually located the marriage record for Parr, who had married Maxwell Dawson at the church on June 24, 1957. The timing was correct, and this was the couple in the photo.
Reunited With the Rightful Owner
Now, it was time to find their family. Fawcett continued her research into the missing photo album and found a man named Michael Dawson. “I tracked Michael down on Facebook and sent him a message, which is something I would never usually do,” she said. “But I thought I’d be devastated if it was me, and I just felt the album needed to go back to its family. I asked him if he was the son of Barbara and Maxwell and he said yes, and then he rang me and well, I felt like we’d known each other for ages.”
Dawson was deeply moved by Fawcett’s dedication to finding who the photo album belongs to. He expressed his gratitude in an interview with BBC News. “I’m absolutely elated because I am sentimental and it’s important for me to have these photos,” he said. “I will protect it with my life now, based on the fact that it’s all I’ve got.”
As for how the thief stole the album? “Someone had broken in and taken all the family treasure. He said he’d lost everything. So you can imagine how I felt to be able to reunite him with this [album] … I’ve got goose pimples talking about it. Everybody loves a happy ending, don’t they?” Fawcett said, The Guardian reports.
Man Declares He Will Protect Stolen 1957 Wedding Album With His Life After It Is Returned