A Man Discovered Old Photos At The Thrift Store — And Then Looked Closer At Who Was In Them

When Greg Kozlick wandered into a thrift store looking for some bargain electronic equipment, he couldn’t realize quite what fate had in store for him. In fact, he ended up leaving with far more than he’d expected. As he was browsing, he came across a box of old photographic slides. And having taken one look inside, he knew he’d found something special…

A photographer

Greg’s a young guy, still in his early 20s, but he knows his stuff when it comes to photography. He’s a snapper himself, and he takes all kinds of pictures whenever he can. Whether it’s capturing buildings, doing portraits, or taking photos for journalistic purposes, he likes to do it all.

Snapshots of a life

It’s probably all that experience as a photographer that helped Greg realize this box of slides he’d discovered was important. He had an innate understanding of the immense power of photographs, so he knew these things couldn’t just be discarded. After all, they contained snapshots of a life once lived.

Important moments

The images on the slides seemed old — they certainly hadn’t been taken any time recently. They must have gone back many decades, and they presented moments from some seemingly very important events in a person’s life. Some photos showed a wedding ceremony, while others depicted what appeared to be a graduation.

Big questions

Events like weddings and graduations tend to be pretty precious to people, so why on Earth were these images languishing inside a thrift store? To whom had they once belonged, and where was this person now? Were they even still alive? Greg had lots of questions — and he needed to get some answers.

Too much

Not many people would have followed their curiosity through to the end here. They might have been interested in the photos, sure, but realistically they’d never expect to be able to track down their rightful owner. The amount of time, effort, and expertise required for that would be far too much to overcome, wouldn’t it?

Overcoming obstacles

Well, maybe not. None of those obstacles managed to stop Greg. His curiosity was far too intense to simply forget about the photos and carry on with his life. No, he needed to figure this out. And even though it would take a lot of work over the course of many, many months, he would eventually get to the bottom of it all.

Downers Grove

All of this began in the summer of 2021, in the month of June. Greg had decided to take a look around a Goodwill store located in Downers Grove, which is a village in Illinois. Hop in a car from here and drive east for 30 minutes or so, and you’d end up in Chicago.

The Photo Detective

Greg had been looking for a router in the Goodwill store, as he explained on a podcast called The Photo Detective. This show is hosted by a woman named Maureen Taylor, who appropriately is an expert when it comes to old photos. Naturally enough, she took quite the interest in Greg’s story.

An expert

If you’ve come across an old photograph and don’t know who’s in it, Maureen is exactly the sort of person you should go to for help. She’s worked with imagery at a historical society in the past, so she knows a thing or two about how to research photos. Her website elaborates on her specific skills and expertise.

No mystery is too small”

Maureen explains on her site, “I really love family photographs. All of them — from the mystery images you find in shoeboxes and albums to the pictures you snap with your digital devices. No mystery is too small.” According to the expert, investigating just one simple old snap can often provide unexpected insights into the lives of your family’s forebears. 

Proven methods

Maureen goes on, “If you don’t know who’s in a photo, don’t worry. I have proven methods for putting names to the faces in those pictures. Methods that can tell you more about when they were taken, who took them, and why.” She cites her background as a historical society curator as the reason why she’s well used to uncovering the secrets of old snaps.

Maureen’s approach

Maureen’s site sheds a little light on how she goes about undertaking her work. When she comes across a particular photograph and wants to learn more about it, she first scans it for specific features. If there’s a person in the image, for example, she’ll look at their hair and their clothes.

Time and place

The reason for this is pretty straightforward. A person’s hair or their fashion can be pretty telling. Right away, it might give Maureen a very clear indication of where and when this photograph was taken. Figuring that out early really brings focus to her investigation and search for the subject.

Experienced eye

Maureen’s experienced eye can pick out things in photographs that most of us just don’t see. In doing so, she’s able to begin reconstructing the wider context within which the image was originally taken. As she says on her website, “A wedding photo can tell you who attended the event and where the couple was married. A woman’s hat can identify her ethnic origins.”

Quite the career

Maureen has made quite the career out of her unique expertise. She gives talks about using photos to tell families’ stories, plus she’s written books and articles for prominent publications on the subject. She’s even appeared on TV to talk about it. And, of course, she hosts that podcast where she spoke to Greg.

In her wheelhouse

The photo slides Greg uncovered in the Goodwill store represent the exact type of mystery Maureen relishes. Tracking down the subjects of images like these is perfectly in her wheelhouse: they’re skills she’s developed and honed over many years. And that just makes it all the more remarkable that Greg didn’t even need her help.

Tugging on the heartstrings

Greg got to the bottom of this puzzle all on his own, which impressed a pro like Maureen. That’s why she had him on The Photo Detective podcast, where she spoke to him about what happened. In her description for the episode, she warned her listeners the story would be “sure to tug on the heartstrings.”

Setting the scene

Maureen got the ball rolling with some small talk, just to set the scene a little bit. She asked Greg to tell the listeners a little about who he was, and he duly obliged. He kept things simple, explaining that he was a photographer based in the suburbs of Chicago.

Looking for a router

Maureen jumped right into the story then, laying out the reason why Greg had been inside the Goodwill store that fateful summer day. She knew he’d been looking for some kind of electronics, which Greg confirmed had actually been a router. As it happened, of course, he ended up leaving with something far more consequential.

Sue’s wedding

Greg happened upon a box, which, for one reason or another, piqued his interest. He picked the thing up to investigate, only to discover it was filled with photographic slides. There must have been about 80 images in here, and there was a note, too. It simply read, “Sue’s Wedding.”

Something special

On the podcast, Greg spoke to Maureen about that important moment he opened the old container up for the very first time. He said, “Yeah, I opened the box, took a look — there’s four trays, and one of them said, ‘Sue’s Wedding.’ And I knew I had something special.”

Man on a mission

Greg had a careful look at the slides, holding them up to the light to get a clearer look at what they depicted. And based on the things he saw, he just knew they were important. He quickly made it his mission to get these images back to where they belonged.

First thought

Greg’s story has captured a lot of people’s attention, and he’s also spoken to more mainstream media outlets than Maureen’s podcast. He even showed up on CNN, where he spoke about his decision to track down the slides’ owner. He said, “Immediately my first thought was that I wanted to share them with the family, and reunite them with the memories.”

A slow start

But despite his instant desire to track down the owner of the slides, it took a while for Greg to really get going. He’d instantly decided to investigate the images, but things like this take time — especially if the investigator is an amateur. With that in mind, it was only in the new year that things really started to gain momentum.

Making things easier

Right at the start of January 2022, Greg picked himself up a projector from a different thrift store. Now, he was going to be able to take a proper look at the photos held on each slide. That would make things an awful lot easier for the amateur sleuth to work through.

Projections

Using his new gizmo, Greg projected the mysterious images onto the wall of his bedroom. Now, he was able to see the wedding and graduation photos with far more ease than before. But still, he needed help if he was to progress. He couldn’t identify anyone in the pictures all on his own.

A brainwave

Greg had a brainwave: he decided to take some photos of his own. With the slides now projected onto his wall, Greg grabbed some snaps of what they showed. He then logged on to Facebook and uploaded these images to a number of groups focused on his local community. Would anyone here recognize anyone from the slides?

Falling into place

This proved to have been a shrewd move. Within 30 minutes of his upload, several users were reaching out to Greg with the information he craved. People identified the church in the photographs, while some even recognized a number of the individuals captured, too. It was all beginning to fall into place.

Sue Brose

Before long, Greg had a name: Sue Brose. She, of course, was the bride in the images. These had been her wedding photos! But the weird thing was that her surname really caught Greg’s attention: he’d known someone named Brose from his own life. Could this Brose have been related to Sue? Greg had to find out.

Autumn

The Brose in question was named Autumn, and she’d gone to high school with Greg. These days, of course, it’s pretty easy for former classmates to get in touch with each other, so that’s what Greg did. He reached out to Autumn to find out if she was related to Sue.

Just like that

Sure enough, it turned out Sue Brose was Autumn’s very own grandmother. Just like that, Greg had figured out exactly who was in the photographs and he’d even established a link to them. He asked for Autumn’s help, and pretty soon she was putting him in touch with her grandma.

End of the search

By January 6, 2022, Greg’s months-long investigation had come to an end. That was the day he handed over the slides to their rightful owner. For the first time in many, many years, Sue was able to look back on photos from some very important milestones from her life. The images covered a period starting with her 1968 graduation from high school up to her wedding day at the end of ’69.

Shocked and delighted

Sue was understandably quite shocked by this unexpected development, but that’s not to say she wasn’t delighted. As she explained to CNN, “My photos from those days are very faded, 52 years later, so it’s really special. Now I’m going to be able to print up some fresh ones with better color.”

Teary-eyed

Autumn was also incredibly moved by the reemergence of these old photographs from her grandmother’s life. Passion and empathy, it seems, run strongly in the family. As Autumn herself put it to CNN, “I’m very sentimental like her. When I saw her get the pictures, I started to get tears in my eyes.”

A tough time

These images were returned to Sue at a pretty delicate point in her life. She’d experienced health issues of late, forcing her into hospital on a couple of occasions. But on top of that, her own mom had recently died, which is probably why the slides had ended up in a thrift store in the first place.

The theory

A solid theory for what happened suggests Sue’s mom had possessed the box of slides, but when she died somebody found them and didn’t realize their significance. They had donated them to the thrift store, and with that the photos should have been lost forever. But, of course, then Greg found them and managed to get them back to the family.

A lovely connection

Whatever the truth of the matter is, it’s just good news that Sue has the pictures back. Not only had they probably been owned by her mom, after all, but most of the photos had likely been snapped by her dad. He’d been dead for just over a decade by this point, so the photos were a lovely connection to him, too.

Amazing to have

Even Autumn had come to know Sue’s parents, so the photos were emotional for her, too. She reflected to CNN, “I was super-close with my great-grandpa and have memories of looking at his old photos with him. This is amazing to have back in the family!”

Choking up

In the end, the happy ending to this story came from Greg and his persistence. But he didn’t stop there, as he also arranged for the images to be digitized. That way, the family shouldn’t ever lose them again. And as for his part in the tale, Greg was just pleased he could help. He said, “It was very emotional just for me, I choke up just telling the story. To give them back to the person they belong to and because they were taken by her late father, she now has a piece of him.”