Unclaimed Persons Revisited

As a result of the recent Unclaimed Persons video at RootsTelevision, genealogists are coming out of the woodwork (or maybe I should say crawling out of their family trees) to help area coroners close these cases. Many are hitting the thousands of cases posted at unclaimedpersons.com, a Web site which covers unclaimed cases from the state of California. The majority of these cases are from the San Bernardino coroner's office, which is now being flooded with information and tips from well-meaning genealogists; too much for their small department to handle, since their primary focus is understandably on the recently deceased. The enthusiasm and tips are welcome, don't get me wrong. But please be aware that most of this enthusiasm is being showered on one single coroner's office.

In an effort to better coordinate the needs of various coroner's offices across the U.S. with the skills of enthusiastic volunteer genealogists, Megan Smolenyak has started an Unclaimed Persons group on Facebook where she has already posted a new case for genealogists to tackle. Registration is free if you're not already on Facebook and all genealogists are welcome to participate.