Family reunited with ‘precious’ lost photo album after search

A Fitchburg man completed his search to find the rightful owner of a family photo album he found along Interstate 93 in Woburn.

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The album is filled with dozens of photographs from World War II, along with precious family memories.

Mark Sanderelli says he had been holding onto the album for a month, trying to preserve the decades-old photos.

"When I saw them, I knew this was precious. This was a time capsule right here," he said.

When the story about finding the album ran on Boston 25 News, a family-friend of the album owner recognized the book immediately and called her friend. That friend is the great-granddaughter of the man in the photos.

Sanderelli was on the job when he spotted a cabinet taped shut along the highway. He says when he went to move the drawers, that's when he found a scrapbook filled with mementos from the 1940s.

"You hope to never lose that stuff, those memories," Sanderelli said of dozens of photographs taken from around the world.

Sanderelli tried to piece together a story of a man's life during the Greatest Generation.

"I knew this was significant, this was somebody’s, these are personal pictures," he said.

The lost album fell into the right lap.

Sanderelli is a history buff with military ties.

He says he recognized photos taken during World War II, snapshots from a life far from home.

The pictures are marked "Japan," "Alaska," and others documenting family members stateside.