Unclaimed Persons on Roots Television

Roots Television has added a new episode about finding the families of deceased individuals. These "Unclaimed Persons" have now often been identified by genealogists who use traditional genealogical techniques.

"Unclaimed Persons" also describes the Unknown Persons web site, a list of deceased individuals whose families are unknown. Thousands of unclaimed persons cases remain unsolved but you can help. If you would like to help a great cause, you might want to contribute your skills and expertise.

You can watch this interesting "Unclaimed Persons" television program on your computer now at http://www.RootsTelevision.com.

Here is the announcement of the new show:

Coroners and Genealogists Join Forces in New Show to Tackle Quiet Epidemic of Unclaimed Persons

PROVO, UT, May 28, 2008 – What happens to people when they die with no next of kin to claim their bodies?  RootsTelevision.com, an online channel dedicated to all aspects of genealogy and family history, has launched a new show, Unclaimed Persons, to bring attention to this largely unknown epidemic.  Coroners’ offices across the country are struggling to cope with thousands of unclaimed people whose identities are known, but for whom no family can be found.

“I knew about John and Jane Does,” said genealogist Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, “but I had no idea about all these unclaimed people who are usually cremated and buried in unmarked graves, and that’s often after several months on a shelf in a morgue. We hear about abandoned pets, but you never hear about these abandoned bodies.”

Accidentally stumbling across an article about one such case is what prompted Smolenyak Smolenyak to cold call a couple of coroners’ offices and offer her sleuthing skills for tracking down family members.  Unclaimed Persons features cases – one involving a man who was found in his jeep in the desert and had been lost to his family for more than 50 years -- from Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania and San Bernardino County, California.

Says RootsTelevision.com co-founder Marcy Brown, “We hope this show will create awareness, and that viewers will help with unsolved cases.  But most of all, we hope it will motivate folks to pick up the phone and call that brother they haven’t spoken with in decades.  I think it will make people ask themselves if maybe it’s time to call home.”

Unclaimed Persons can be viewed at www.RootsTelevision.com.

About RootsTelevision.com

RootsTelevision.com was launched online in late 2006 and already provides more than 1,000 videos – free, on-demand and 24/7 -- for family history enthusiasts around the globe.  In its first year, this Internet-based channel won four Telly Awards for its diverse programming.  For more information, please visit www.RootsTelevision.com.

Comments

[Mariann]

I've never heard of this and my grandfather is one of those people. My grandmother was told he walked out of the hospital and they had no idea where he went. My grandmother and my father and uncle never learned what happened to him. Since he was born in 1887 there is no doubt that he is an "unclaimed person" but how do I find him? Where do I even start? I was just a child at the time and learned about it when I wanted to get my Italian citizenship and needed his death certificate of which there isn't one.

[Joy Chichester]

It was my mysteriously disappeared grandfather whose unknown total identity sent me on this fantastic journey to find him for myself, the granddad I never knew. I knew his first and last names, and had a newspaper clipping from the Houston Chronicle in 1941, which gave his birthplace (but then again, it was where he was raised, not his birthplace!), his photo, and a photo of one of his drawings. I knew he died in Houston, TX. Dozens of men in the South were named Willis McCracken, but I finally found his middle name, Emile, in my father's goverment personal history (resume). Yet, the middle name is recorded nowhere else. His obituary and newspapers articles with photos were sent to me by the Houston Public Library. A year after he died, my father decided to find him in Houston, and all we learned was that no one knew of his family, so he was buried in the "potter's field". I am now trying to uncover W.E. McCracken's interesting and multi-faceted life, but still, no one seems to have heard of him, at least I have no response from my query in GenForum. I have very little idea of where he was between 1901 and 1941. I am also finding other ancestors, who may be called "Unclaimed Persons." Their hometown in Mississippi knew nothing of them when I visited in 2004, yet this family was part of the original group who were pioneer founders of the town. How quickly we are forgotten, if we don't instigate spectacular news reports in our lifetime!