This happened to me when my grandmother died in 2005. My mom and I started searching the internet a few years ago and found out that all of the portrait style photos where taken by the same photographer (you could tell by the backdrop).

This photographer was notable in the city but his entire collection lost. Local historians were looking for his works as he was Vancouver's first Chinese photographer. He mostly photographed immigrant families and marginalised communities.

The city wanted to put together an exhibit and add his works to the archives, so we donated them and they were able to actually identify my non relatives because other families had also donated their photos.