Amateur historian tracks down owner of stolen 1957 wedding album
A 1957 wedding album left behind a cafe in Wakefield, England, has been returned to the couple's son after a local history enthusiast traced the family through public records. The album had been stolen from a storage unit.
An amateur historian in Wakefield, a city in West Yorkshire, England, has used archive records to work out who owned an old wedding album found dumped behind a cafe in August. The album, which documents a couple's 1957 wedding, has now been returned to their son.
The owners of Eva's Kitchen found the album and wanted to return it to its family. They contacted their local newspaper, the Wakefield Express, which ran an appeal. Weeks passed without a response, and the cafe owners kept the album safe.
Clues in a faded list
Anne-Marie Fawcett, who lives in nearby Ossett, saw the story in the paper. The album contained a barely legible list of names, and she could make out one: Maureen Bullivant. She said the unusual surname was a researcher's dream. In the 1939 register, a record of the population of England and Wales at the start of the Second World War, she found a Maureen Bullivant born in 1937 and living in Sheffield. Marriage records showed Bullivant married in 1958, a year after the wedding in the album, so she was a witness rather than the bride.
Fawcett then checked the marriage of Bullivant's parents, which took place at Wadsley Parish Church in Sheffield. Knowing the name of the church helped her read the rest of the list, and photo enhancement tools revealed another name, Barbara Parr. Records confirmed that Barbara Parr, aged 21, married Maxwell Dawson at the same church on 24 June 1957.
Electoral registers placed the couple at an address on Walton Lane in Wakefield. Fawcett posted her findings in a Facebook group, the Wakefield Historical Appreciation Site. A member recalled a schoolmate called Michael Dawson who had lived on that street. Fawcett found him on Facebook, and he confirmed he was the couple's son.
Stolen from storage
Dawson explained that the album had not simply been lost. It was among several treasured family items stolen from a storage unit near the cafe. His parents have both died, and the photographs are among the few images of them he has left. The 65-year-old met Fawcett in person and received the album, saying he was elated and would keep it somewhere precious.
