It sucks that those memories were, potentially, tossed aside to be forgotten. Hopefully someone that knows these people will run across your posts and will be able to piece together some of their family/friends history.

I know I lost A LOT of family memories when my father passed away. He left all his stuff to my sister. She got in an argument one night at a bonfire party at their house and her husband got mad and started throwing boxes of her stuff into the bonfire. He claimed later that he didn't know they were boxes of pictures my dad took, some dating back to the 60s (he was a sheet metal union member and loved photographing, capturing, memories of his travels and his work later family). He claimed he thought it was her clothes - like that is any better to be burning over having too much beer.

I do hope these memories you are able to share are found by family and friends someday.