Help to reunite the Northern Ireland family with a photo album which turned up in a Florida hotel?

An American lady is trying to reunite a Northern Ireland family with an old photo album which was left in a Florida hotel – and she thinks they could be from Ballymoney!

Sandra Sue Dent from Lake Wales in Florida contacted the Ballymoney Times (sister paper of the Belfast News Letter) and Dalriada School in Ballymoney for help in tracing the family in order to return the photo album which seems to have been left behind in a Howard Johnson’s Hotel in Winter Haven, Florida.

In the email, Sandra Sue, explained: “I have an old family photo album and am trying to find out who it belongs to. I think the album was left at the Howard Johnson’s Hotel in Winter Haven, Florida, USA, a long time ago and it ended up in their ‘lost and found’. Eventually it found its way to me. Inside there is a picture of Cypress Gardens which is located in Winter Haven; I live near there. I think it was left at the hotel sometime in the 1990s or maybe the early 2000s.

"Most of the pictures are of people and children, and some have dates from the 1970s and 1980s. There are two wedding invitations included one from 1973 and the other from 1975 They are both from Mr. & Mrs. W.P. Connolly and are for their daughter Lesley in 1973 and Eleanor in 1975. Both weddings were announced at the Carncullagh Presbyterian Church in Dervock, afterwards at the Adair Arms Hotel in Ballymena.

"I have also attached a picture of the cover of the album, the inscription on the inside front cover that says “To Nona with love”, a picture of the first page of the album with pictures of a woman and on the back of the large picture it says “Mum” and someone wrote in ink on the black paper "William Connolly" and "Helen Connolly”, and lastly a picture of a man and a girl which is labelled "Dad, Eleanor" and I am assuming that is William Connolly and his daughter.

"I am sure the family would like to have this album back and I am hoping you may be able to share my email around to see if anyone knows this family, and maybe give me a clue.”