Volunteer Genealogy Detectives Use Their Skills to Crack Unclaimed Persons Cases
So, you fancy yourself a super sleuth - can you solve this mystery? Two sisters are found dead in their home. They have an estate, but no Will and no known family. How do you find if there is next of kin? If you answered, "Call the Police Department," you may want to keep your day job. If you answered, "Ask a genealogist," you're definitely on the right track. Better yet, if genealogy is your hobby, you may very well think about turning it into your day job. Consider a story that received national attention earlier this year. Two elderly sisters were found dead in their shared home. Usually the names of dead people are withheld pending notification of next of kin; however, in this case, because of the sisters' secluded lives, detectives could not find any family members to contact -- so, they released the sisters' names to the public. The result was surprising. Hundreds of people, many of whom were amateur genealogists, contacted the county sheriff'...