Family from British Columbia thrift store photo discovery identified

Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A British Columbia woman who found old photos in an album she bought from a thrift store was able to find family members, thanks to social media and a TV news broadcast.

Maxine McLean said she bought the seemingly empty photo album at the Restore thrift stop in Campbell River and later discovered old photos in the middle of the book.

McLean posted the photos to Facebook in the hopes that family members would recognize a relative, and a CTV News broadcast extended the reach of her search and ended up resulting in a message from Heather Braithwaite the next morning.

"I never envisioned it would happen that quickly. If it ever happened at all, I thought it could be weeks or months, but I didn't expect it to be the next morning," McLean told CTV News. "So that was really incredible."

Braithwaite said the album had belonged to her mother, a Comox Valley resident who died in July 2020. She said many of her mother's belongings were donated, and the photos must have been left in the album accidentally.

McLean said the photos were put into the mail Tuesday morning and are on their way to Brathwaite.