Hi Listers,
I just joined the list in hopes of finding help identifying an amnesiac
going by the name Benjaman Kyle. I maintain a page on Wikipedia about
him:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjaman_Kyle
Benjaman was found beaten near a Burger King dumpster outside of Savannah,
GA in 2002. On recovering consciousness, he could not remember who he is.
I am a well known forensic genealogist who has been helping him and his
advocate Katherine since February 2009.
Since Benjaman thinks he remembers his birthdate as August 29, 1948, and
his few childhood memories indicate he was either born in Indianapolis or
visited there as a child, I recently wrote to the Indiana State Library
about having a search done of the Indiana Birth Index. They told me they
don't have access to it, but that it might be useful to search the
Indianapolis newspapers for birth announcements from August 1948. They
suggested the Indy Star, the Indy News, and Indy Commerical newspapers.
Another possibility is voter registrations. The library does not have
them for 1948 - and suggests that I contact the Sec of State (which I will
do).
My questions to the list are:
1. Does anyone have experience with the birth announcements for Marion
Co., IN. Were there enough births announced in the newspaper to make it
worthwhile getting those papers through interlibrary loan, as the State
Library suggests?
2. Does anyone have knowledge of where the State voter registration
records are archived for Indiana for 1969, the year Benjaman would have
turned 21? I plan on calling the Sec of State's office tomorrow about
this.
3. Any other suggestions? I have considered the Vietnam draft
registrations, as Benjaman would have been the right age to be drafted.
The National Archives have told me that these records are public access,
but that they are archived at the local draft boards in hard copy only.
Colleen Fitzpatrick, PhD
Huntington Beach, CA
Identifinders International
www.identifinders.com
colleen(a)identifinders.com