What can a group of volunteer genealogists offer your organization?
You have an ever increasing caseload of unclaimed individuals and limited resources for locating next of kin. Unclaimed Persons has 200+ members with the research skills, tools, commitment, and experience to find their families.
Our members have access to census records, obituaries and news articles, vital records in the public domain, property records, and burial records, and other documents that may not be available without an annual subscription. Our experience using these resources to identify our own unidentified ancestors correlates directly with assisting coroner and medical examiner agency staff in finding living individuals.
We offer our service to you free-of-charge. All we ask for in return in is open, continuous communication to ensure our researchers have the information they need to work the case and feedback on the final outcome of the case. It is very inspiring for our members to learn the resolution. Feedback also helps us to improve our service.
How does Unclaimed Persons work?
Researchers gather on a private, members-only discussion board to work on each case, which is monitored by trained administrators (also volunteer researchers). This collaborative approach enables researchers to build on each other’s findings and fit missing clues together from the posted information. Sometimes we are able to find family within hours of the case being introduced. Other times, it takes months of meticulous work and countless hours by many researchers to find the obscure record holding the clue to solving the case. When the casework is complete, we provide a detailed report of our findings.
To maintain the strictest confidentiality, our members agree not to pass information from any case to a third-party or to post it elsewhere online (including in private family trees); furthermore, we never contact families or other individuals who may have had a potential relationship with, or know of, the decedent.
Where can I find testimonies from other medical examiners, coroners, and investigators?
- See what other medical examiners, coroners, and investigators have to say about working with Unclaimed Persons.
- Read other FAQs. While these FAQs are largely geared toward volunteers, scanning them will help acquaint you with our services and procedures.
If you have a case you’d like researched, please complete the Request for Assistance Submission Form.