Let me see if I can explain unclaimed. Sometimes when people die their name is known but the ME or whoever is unable to locate any family. So, the person becomes an unclaimed. The name is posted on a website and we try to match it to a living relative mostly using genealogy records.
1.) Sometimes the family or one member of the family knows but refuses for whatever reason (financial or because of hard feelings) refuses to claim the body.
2.) Sometimes it is a homeless or street person. They may have lost touch with family years ago. The family may or may not be looking for them. Raine had a case of a mother who lost touch with her daughter 10 years before. We traced the family and contact was made with the mother who was heartbroken to find out her daughter was dead, but relieved to know she knew what had happened to her.
3.) Sometimes it is someone who dies in a group home or other institution who lost touch with their family. We had a case like this recently--A man who had been living in a group home died of cancer. No family known. We found the sister who lost track of her brother when they moved him from the state hospital and the hospital lost his records. She was also sad to hear of his death, but glad to know what happened to her brother.
4.) Sometimes the ID and name that the unclaimed gave is a fake one. These are very hard cases. But sometimes we figure it out.
5.) Sometimes the person is elderly and dies alone.
6.) Sometimes the only living relative is a very distant relationship. Takes a good bit of genealogy work to figure these out. For one lady, it was a third cousin.
7.) Family trees - sometimes whoever is doing the family's genealogy may find the ssdi (social security death index) and places it in the family tree. Sometimes this is a distant relationship. Sometimes it is close family. We try to figure out how close the relationship is to the owner of the tree (on ancestry) and see if we can determine if close family knows.
8.) And sadly, sometimes the records are incomplete, the family knows. And may have claimed the body. Maybe listed the person as deceased in a more recent obituary, but the ME's file did not get updated.
So, that is unclaimed. Usually quite a challenge to unravel.
Raine and I both believe that every person deserves at least for their family to know what happened to them, a chance to go home to their family, and the family deserves to know what happened to their family member.
Hope that helps and maybe inspires you to work some unclaimed cases. We can always use the help!
Thanks NM for the help. Your sidekick!
1.) Sometimes the family or one member of the family knows but refuses for whatever reason (financial or because of hard feelings) refuses to claim the body.
2.) Sometimes it is a homeless or street person. They may have lost touch with family years ago. The family may or may not be looking for them. Raine had a case of a mother who lost touch with her daughter 10 years before. We traced the family and contact was made with the mother who was heartbroken to find out her daughter was dead, but relieved to know she knew what had happened to her.
3.) Sometimes it is someone who dies in a group home or other institution who lost touch with their family. We had a case like this recently--A man who had been living in a group home died of cancer. No family known. We found the sister who lost track of her brother when they moved him from the state hospital and the hospital lost his records. She was also sad to hear of his death, but glad to know what happened to her brother.
4.) Sometimes the ID and name that the unclaimed gave is a fake one. These are very hard cases. But sometimes we figure it out.
5.) Sometimes the person is elderly and dies alone.
6.) Sometimes the only living relative is a very distant relationship. Takes a good bit of genealogy work to figure these out. For one lady, it was a third cousin.
7.) Family trees - sometimes whoever is doing the family's genealogy may find the ssdi (social security death index) and places it in the family tree. Sometimes this is a distant relationship. Sometimes it is close family. We try to figure out how close the relationship is to the owner of the tree (on ancestry) and see if we can determine if close family knows.
8.) And sadly, sometimes the records are incomplete, the family knows. And may have claimed the body. Maybe listed the person as deceased in a more recent obituary, but the ME's file did not get updated.
So, that is unclaimed. Usually quite a challenge to unravel.
Raine and I both believe that every person deserves at least for their family to know what happened to them, a chance to go home to their family, and the family deserves to know what happened to their family member.
Hope that helps and maybe inspires you to work some unclaimed cases. We can always use the help!
Thanks NM for the help. Your sidekick!
