LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — A Lawrence County man is hoping to reunite a piece of military history with its rightful owner. He believes what he found could date back to WWI.

“We were going through some things and we found the picture, the photo,” said Mark Schaaf.

He is referring to an old military portrait in a little round frame. Schaaf said he doesn’t know the man in the photo but wants to reconnect the picture to its rightful owner.

Schaaf said the photo ended up in his home sometime around 1998. He told News 19 that his fiancée bought a “grab bag” of items at a Decatur yard sale, and the photo must have been in that bag of items.

He said he didn’t even know about the picture, but “low and behold it turned up 25 years later.”

Schaaf reached out to News 19 for help finding the owner, after striking out researching on his own.

He said, “They bulldozed all them homes over,” so knocking on doors in the neighborhood where the yard sale was is not an option either.

“I couldn’t come to any conclusions, so that’s why I contacted you,” Schaaf said.

The picture itself doesn’t lend many clues, as to who the man in the picture may be.

“Usually there’s something on the cap, but I didn’t see any insignia on the young man,” Schaaf said.

Schaaf said he comes from a military family, so he understands the significance of an heirloom like an old military portrait.

“This was definitely on someone’s shelf for a long time,” he said while holding the picture frame.

“The sacrifice, we don’t know what that is, where that individual ended up,” Schaaf said. “He might have been shipped overseas or died in combat, we don’t know.”

While there is no date on the picture, he believes based on the uniform that the man may have served in World War I.

News 19 reached out to the U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum in Huntsville, to see if they could offer any insight.

The museum pointed out the crossed rifles and the letter G on the button close to the neck on the uniform. They said that likely means the man served in the Infantry for Company G.

“It should go back to its rightful owner,” Schaaf told News 19.

Mr. Schaaf gave his contact information to News 19. He is asking for anyone who may have firm leads on who the man in the picture is or who his family is to reach out.

You can contact News 19, by filling out a news tip, and we can connect people to Mr. Schaaf.