I watched an internet program on
www.rootstelevision.com about a
genealogist who has assisted a coroner's office to find relatives of
unclaimed deceased persons in CA. These people were identified by name and
sometimes DOB and POB, but no family could be found to notify of the deaths.
The bodies are eventually cremated and put in unmarked pauper's graves. The
show refers one to a website
www.unclaimedpersons.com. There are a couple
of thousand of such unclaimed persons just in CA--it's astonishing that
there could be so many. (So sad, especially the young ones and those from
other lands whose people must be wondering what became of them.) The deaths
may have been natural or not. I do not know if other states have anything
similar. The lists go back to the 1990s it seems. (Too bad it doesn't go
farther back and nationwide. My g-grandmother had a brother who disappeared
in the early 20th century and was feared to have met a bad end. It is still
wondered about in the family a hundred years later.)
There are three people with surname Carpenter on that list for California:
#582 was Arley CARPENTER,
d. in Pasadena 5/1/98 at age 89.
#559 was Sally CARPENTER,
d. in Temple City, CA in 1998 at age 82
#1741 was Jeanette
CARPENTER, d. Ontario, CA 2/11/2003, age 80, b. WA 6/3/22
Perhaps someone will recognize a name or be interested in tracking down
one of them or someone else via genealogical methods. There is information
on the website about which coroner to contact. (They are not necessarily
soliciting for genealogists.) The coroner's office should make any
notifications, as they have all the details, and some cases may be
sensitive. But perhaps someone will be able to provide new leads for a
possible connection. It seems a sad thing for anyone's body to be
unclaimed.
--Pam Berger