Woman's search to reunite lost photos with family

George Torr & Andy Twigge
BBC News, Derby
Agnes Adkins A selection of photos with various people that were found in a suitcase. They include lots of different people in school uniforms, a wedding and family holidays. Agnes Adkins
An appeal has been shared to try and locate the people in photos found in a charity shop suitcase

A woman who bought a suitcase from a charity shop in Derbyshire got more than she bargained for when she discovered a raft of old family photos.

Agnes Adkins, from Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire, bought the suitcase to take on holiday to Italy and found the collection in a "secret pocket" when she unpacked last August.

The 46-year-old is now sharing an appeal to reunite the 135 photos and hopes to make contact with the family.

She told BBC Radio Derby: "I just hope I find them through social media, it will be great if I can."

Kacper Misiarz/BBC Picture of Agnes Adkins in the BBC Radio Derby studio. She is wearing a red top and has a fair-coloured bob haircut.Kacper Misiarz/BBC
Agnes Adkins made the discovery after she opened the suitcase she bought at a charity shop in Hatton, Derbyshire

"Me and my husband started searching through the pictures," she said.

"We turned detectives to try and figure who this family was and we found a couple of surnames on Facebook but we had no response... it's been hard."

There were some more clues, which included first names on the back of some photos, a holiday taken on a Britanny ferry and one photo which was taken in New Zealand.

Ms Adkins said after the initial investigation to try and find what she thought were two families, she put the photos away and forgot about them.

Agnes Adkins More pictures with various people that were found in a suitcase. They include lots of different people in school uniforms, a wedding and family holidays. Agnes Adkins
Ms Adkins said she found the pictures while she was unpacking her new suitcase in Italy last summer

But she found them in a cupboard last week and said to her husband she needed to reignite the search.

The 46-year-old said she contacted the charity shop in Hatton where she bought the £9.95 suitcase but they told her they did not keep a record of the person who donated it.

You can listen to the interview on BBC Sounds.

Agnes Adkins The back of one of the pictures which has the names; Tom, Scott, Bryan, Piers, Lyndon, James, Molly, Emily and Jessica written down.Agnes Adkins
Some of the pictures provided clues as to who the people are in the photo

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