In 2014 Alan J. Ward purchased a collection of 'quarter plate' glass negatives on a whim, from an Ebay seller in Brighton, that had no provenance. There are about 230 in total, dating from 1914 through to the 50s. Through a few clues offered up in the images and the original boxes they came in, he pieced together the beginnings of a substantial lost family history, that seemed strangely to parallel his own.