WATERVILLE, Maine (WBZ NewsRadio) — When Maine photographer Wesley Babula stumbled upon an old photo album back in the early 1990's -- he never anticipated it would create a new family bond of his own.
Babula bought the photo book in a "five and dime" store in Waterville and brought it home -- intending on reuniting it with it's original owner.
"[It was this] leather-bound album with these really beautiful black and white pictures from the 20's up to the 50's," Babula said.
But Babula said he quickly got "caught up in life" after finding the book and temporarily packed it away in a box -- until six months ago, when he enlisted the help of his friend Mike Hurd.
"The pictures almost brought me to tears," Hurd said. "I heard voices telling me 'find this family.'"
The two searched on the internet and found Kimberly Burns -- whose grandparents are the subject of the photos.
"My grandmother went into such detail with this, every photograph," Burns said. "This photo album that we didn't even know about was found -- and we know that much more detail about who [my grandparents] were and how they lived their lives, we're so grateful for it."
The book even included a hand written story about Burns' grandfather Carroll -- whom she never met.
"He helped build Colby College, he helped build Laguardia Airport, he did all these amazing things," she said. "It's kind of amazing -- [the book] kind of brought the family together and it also brought me my two new uncles [Wesley and Mike] -- we're family now."
WBZ's Chris Fama (@CFamaWBZ) reports.
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Written by Rachel Armany
Photo: (Getty Images)