I recently came across an item for sale on eBay that intrigued me. It was simply an exposed roll of vintage film. Kodak Verichrome Pan, to be specific. The seller was asking $10 but had a “Make an Offer” option available. I got him down to $6 and he shipped it to my house.

The film sat on my desk in my home office while I began doing research on it and how to process it. It’s a black and white film and I learned that Kodak introduced it in 1956 and it was produced until October, 1996. So, at a minimum, this film was 28 years old.

After much poking and prodding on the Internet for the best way to process this old film, I decided I’d process it using stand development with Rodinal developer. I’d dilute the developer at a rate of one part developer to 100 parts water and let it sit in the developer for one hour. I’d gently agitate the film halfway through the process then hope for the best.

To my great suprise and delight, the film turned out! I was hesitant to even examine the film until it fully dried for fear of damaging it. After sufficient time hanging from my shower spout to dry, I gave the negatives a look. There were a few blank frames, but there was a handful of good negatives from the roll. I could see that the images were of a child. A girl. And a house.

I scanned them to into my computer and got these:

I was confronted with an obvious mystery.

• When were the photos taken?
• Where were the photos taken?
• Who is the girl?
• Who is the adult male seen reflected in the home’s storm door and in the (probably inadvertent) double exposure?

What follows is a short breakdown of how this mystery was solved. And for those who wonder, only publicly available resources were used to do my research.

This will sound crazy and I promise I’m not trying to scam you.

I contacted the guy I purchased the film from for any information he might have about the film. All he could tell me was that he buys and sells things that interest him and he likely bought it at a garage sale in Akron, OH.

An Internet friend conducted a reverse image search of the home and was able to determine its actual street address in a suburb of Akron, OH.

I conducted research on that property and determined its current owners were a young couple who had lived there for just a few years. My research on the house showed it was built in 1963, so the photo was taken in or after 1963.

By searching publicly available property tax records, I determined who had originally bought the house in 1963. Further researched showed he’s currently a 91 year old male. I researched his name and found newspaper announcements of his wedding and the birth of his daughter.

I conducted online research on his daughter and found a current cell phone number for her. I assumed she was the little girl. My call went to voicemail and my message went something like this; “This will sound crazy and I promise I’m not trying to scam you, but I’ve developed an old roll of film and I think the photos might be of you as a little girl.”

Not surprisingly, she didn’t call me back. I knew she’d need to see proof that I wasn’t trying to pull a fast one. I texted her a photo of the little girl and the home. “Is this you and your old house?”

I got a reply within a few minutes; “That is my daughter!! She is 46.”

And in chatting with her, she confirmed that she thought my voicemail was a scam. I learned that the house was her father’s. He was an amateur photographer back then and had a darkroom in his home. He is the adult male who can be seen as the photographer and was taking photos of his granddaughter.

The photos were taken some 40 years ago.