Is my tripod missing a piece?

I found this tripod in my garage. I think my step-dad used to use it for his camcorder, but I can't seem to find a way to attach it to my MiniDV cam.

(forgive the terrible focus of these pictures. I took them with a TERRIBLE little digital camera)

Tripod head
http://i38.tinypic.com/213exjo.jpg

Unattached
http://i33.tinypic.com/28svk38.jpg

Tripod minus the head
http://i35.tinypic.com/2yw8eg2.jpg

Bottom of camcorder, and head of tripod
http://i37.tinypic.com/2m437g6.jpg

How are these supposed to attach? Am I missing something?

Yes, there should be a plate that screws into the tripod hole on the bottom of the cam, that then snaps into the space next to the spring-loaded lever on the tripod head.

If you can find the name and model of the tripod you can probably find the plate somewhere on the Internet. If you can find your step-dad's camcorder I'll bet the plate is still attached to the bottom.

Yeah I wish we could find that camcorder. It's probably in one of the attics in one of numerous boxes. I wouldn't use it much, it was a DVD camcorder, but all the same it'd be nice.

And I'll try to find the tripod model.

Thank you very much.

Just wanted to add that the full name for the piece is "quick release plate." Those two additional words might make a big difference in your Google search results.