Staten Island Family Seeks Owners Of Wedding Photos Found In Sandy Debris
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Black-and-white images from the past were found by victims of Superstorm Sandy on Staten Island, in the chaotic days after the destructive storm nearly two years ago.
Now, the finders want to return the photographs to their rightful owners.
As CBS 2's Tony Aiello reported, the photos show a wedding dating back decades. A flower girl and a ring bearer who appear in the photos would now be in their 50s, and Dominick and Patricia Guinta hope they see or read this story and help identify the photos' rightful owners.
"They're somebody's memories, and I'm sure somebody would want them back," Patricia Guinta said.
The Guintas' home has been rebuilt since the storm in the fall of 2012. But right after Sandy, it was devastated just like many homes in New Dorp.
Dominick Guinta barely escaped as the house filled with 11 feet of water.
"I had to swim out with my dog, and when I came back two days later, there was still, like, 4 feet of water in my basement," he said.
Friends helping the couple clean up found the album with the wedding photos in the driveway. They had the photos restored and returned the album to the Guintas, thinking it was theirs.
But it was not.
"I started looking at them and I'm like - that's not my family, I'm like -- and that's not my husbands' either," Patricia Guinta said.
The pictures showed a beautiful bride arriving at a church, the first kiss with her groom, and the cutting of a cake at a banquet hall.
Looking at the reception photos, the fashions and hairstyles seem to date the wedding to the 1960s.
The Guintas said so many people helped them after the storm that they would like to return the favor by returning the photos.
"I really want these to get back. Now it's like a mission now," Dominick Guinta said.
CBS 2's Aiello did some Internet sleuthing, and it appears that the wedding was held at St. Francis Xavier Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
If you can help solve the mystery, please leave a comment on the CBS New York Facebook page.
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