I found someone's wedding photos in our loft!

[Woopdoggysycamosiy]

Can the power of Mumsnet help me? DH and I were clearing out the loft and amongst the long forgotten junk there was a bag of beautiful wedding photos, along with a copy of the couple's invitations, some larger mounted prints and an order of service. They were married in St Paul's Cathedral! What to do? How to get them back to their rightful owners (hope they're still together!! Way too invested now)?

I'm invested!

I want to see the pic now!

Could you contact the person who lived there before? Would it be them? I know where my tenants moved to as it was in the emails from the estate agents/ lawyers.

I would post on Lostbox on Facebook. They have a great record for finding people quickly.

Definitely write to St Paul's with the info.

I can imagine a newspaper or daytime TV show being interested!

@Woopdoggysycamosiy

I just spent 5 minutes having a quick look to see what I could find, as I love this kind of thing. I'll PM you what I found. Let me know if I was right :)

Interested in what? Some pictures of someone’s wedding?

This is reminding me of The Wedding Detectives that was on radio 4 a couple of years ago. Hope you manage to track someone down to take the photos off your hands - would be a shame to just chuck them!

Have you tried google image search?

Googles their names?

Facebooked their names?

*taps nose
Go on to Ancestry and do a search for someone born in 1996 +/- 10 years with his surname and mother’s maiden name as the bride’s surname.
This should give you a name of any children. Chances are they will be on social media and easier to find.
if you’re lucky, a child will be on Facebook where you can see who their friends are, which, in theory, should show names of both sides of the family if you have the correct profile. You can potentially find the parent from there.
🕵️‍♀️

I say 1996 as an example. Use the year of their wedding as a starting point and go from there. Hopefully you won’t have a Smith marrying a Jones and at least one will have an usual surname.

Also, try companies house directors search.

Contact St Paul's, they will have records, though they are most likely in the public records office archives now (all mine from my church are). Marrying at St Paul's in London needs special criteria so more traceable

And this is how people end up with houses full of other peoples inherited furniture, nick-nacks, ornaments, and photos of dead people they never met!
I’d have chucked them in the bin without a second thought, but I am ruthless with clutter…

I don't imagine the church will have much more information than you already have - their names, date of marriage, and current (90s) address.

Do you have an ancestry account? You might be able to find public trees with their names in or birth records of their children, and maybe a young adult child would be more google-able for contact details.

Search on 192- I found someone that way.

You could also do the free trial on Ancestry. You would definitely find them.that way as you have their names and dates of marriage.

Or actually you can do it on freebmd too and you don't need an account. I just searched the birth records with my parents surnames and a wide 10 year date range, and it came up with me and my two siblings names.

I searched for Elizabeth who married Adrian in 1990 in St Pauls, London and it came up with a marriage. Surname of Adrian beginning with A?

I have not read the full thread but St Paul’s Cathedral will have a list of the weddings they conducted. Try to pin down the year in the 1990s as much as you can from the clothes.

In ancestry if you are alive your details don’t show up on the family tree. It will just show private to anyone looking. So searching the name won’t show a tree it’s in.

Contact St Paul’s with the details you have, they may have parents address at the time.

If you are really invested in finding them, go to the registry office near your house or the cathedral and you could look at the records. The marriage certificate might have parents address on it or where each of the couple were living at the time of marriage.

You might find them by posting a photo on local Facebook pages.

Yes. In Q1 1990. Surnames of both bride and groom are not too common.

That's not true! I shove everything in the attic and left family photos in my old house!

@Woopdoggysycamosiy I've sent you all the details and Elizabeth's current address.

Everything is easily available if you know where and how to look for it :) I've spent years doing family trees for myself and other people so I'm quite good at solving mysteries like this now and I really enjoy doing it.

Amazing @MariaMeringue! Did you trace her just from Elizabeth and Adrian 1990 or did you get some additional info from the OP?

I spent an hour this morning googling the names of some of my ancestors who have quite unusual names and made a mental note to properly research my family tree when I have time. Probably won't be for a few years but do you have any websites like ancestry you recommend? Am interested in looking backwards in time rather than finding 3rd cousins etc.

Wow!!

@Choux freebmd allows you to search the civil register of births, marriages and deaths (for free):

www.freebmd.org.uk

Yes I have used that in the past and looked up a few births and marriages this morning. But what about accessing census records and other info like newspaper articles, emigration records etc. what are the best sources?