What's that you say, Lassie? Someone needs help?

Avro Lancaster bomber

I only recently read about this search, so it's very short notice.  Every living veteran who served in the UK Bomber Command during World War II is being sought for the unveiling of a new memorial, the International Bomber Command Centre, on October 2.  Anyone knowing of any Bomber Command veteran should register the name by e-mailing events@internationalbcc.co.uk or writing to The IBCC, 13 Cherry Holt Road, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9LA.  More information is available in a BBC article.

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The Minnesota Military Museum has a "Veterans Registry" on its new Web site and is requesting assistance to gather stories from veterans.  The registry is a statewide database with information about the military service of Minnesota veterans.  A qualified veteran is anyone who once served or is currently serving in the U.S. military and was either born in or lived in Minnesota.  The plan is to have the most comprehensive online database of Minnesota veterans available to the public.

Anyone can submit a Minnesota veteran's story and pictures of veterans ranging from the Civil War to today.  The service is free of charge and is part of the museum's mission.  If you are interested in learning more or making a submission, visit the museum's site and click on "Veterans."

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The Jewish Community of Nuremberg is in possession of the so-called Sturmer or Streicher Library, a collection of approximately 10,000 books taken by the Nazis from Jews, Catholics, Freemasons, and others.  The books primarily appear to have been taken from Nuremberg, Franconia; Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine; and Vienna, Austria.  The Jewish Community is asking for assistance in finding the former owners or their descendants so that the books may be returned.

More background on the collection, a list of known owners, and photos of identifying information from the books is available on GenTeam.  Contact Leibl Rosenberg, representative of the city of Nuremberg, with questions and research results.

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A new cemetery project is looking for help from genealogists everywhere.  Ryan Vinson’s "Here Lies" encourages users to visit cemeteries and catalog grave sites via an app using GPS data.  Someone using the app uploads a photo of one or more tombs or gravestones, then adds the name and date of birth, and possibly comments.  The digital recording of that burial location will remain forever, even if the markings on the stone fade or are damaged, or the stone itself no longer exists.

Vinson is particularly interested in information from small family graveyards and similar cemeteries that often become neglected and forgotten, and where lack of regular care can lead to deterioration that makes gravestones impossible to identify.  At present only a small number of gravestones is on the app, but with the help of volunteers, it could grow to be a useful database.

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The Fittonia

The town of Grimsby, England lost about 375 fishing trawlers during World War I to mines and U-boats.  Most were destroyed while fishing, while some were requisitioned by the British government to assist with the war effort and were lost as far away as Iceland, Canada, and South Africa.  Twenty-five of the boats have already been researched, and funding has been obtained to research thirty more.  There is now an outreach effort to volunteers worldwide to help map the other lost fishing boats.

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England's Tate Museum is asking for help in identifying buildings and landscapes in nearly 1,000 photographs of the English countryside taken by artist John Piper from the 1930's to the 1980's.  The museum is also looking for contributions of current shots of the almost 6,000 locations that Piper photographed.  If you think you might be able to identify some of the unknown locations in the photographs, visit the Tate's page about the Piper collection.

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Two researchers from the Santa Clara County (California) Historical and Genealogical Society are working on a national project called Faces Never Forgotten, an effort to collect photographs of every Vietnam War casualty for placement in a museum near the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.  They are working on service members from Santa Clara County.  They have found many photographs in obituaries in local newspapers, but for those casualties whose obituaries lacked photographs, they have been searching in high school yearbooks.  In pursuit of the final missing photos, they are now searching for copies of the following yearbooks:

Andrew Hill: 1967, 1968	Mountain View: 1960 through 1969
Buchser: 1966, 1969	Overfelt: 1966, 1967
Campbell: 1966, 1967, 1968	Pioneer: 1968
Cupertino: 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969	Ravenswood: 1962
Del Mar: 1964, 1965	Samuel Ayer: 1966, 1967
Fremont: 1968	San Jose: 1966, 1967, 1968
James Lick: 1966	Santa Clara: 1952
Leigh: 1965, 1966, 1967	Saratoga: 1965
Lynbrook: 1966, 1967 1968	Washington (Union City): 1965
Mount Pleasant: 1966	Westmont: 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968

If you have one of the yearbooks being sought, please e-mail research@scchgs.org and put “High School Yearbooks” in the subject line.  The researchers will get back to you and let you know what to do next.

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This might not be considered genealogy-related by some, but I tend to think of archives such as this as wonderful places to look for information about people.  The San Francisco Opera Archive is looking for volunteer assistance with organizing materials related to the history of the San Francisco Opera.  A minimum time commitment of three hours per week is required.  PC skills, including Word, Excel, and Outlook proficiency, are important.  Knowledge of opera is helpful but not required.  If you are interested, contact afarris@sfopera.com.

Real Forensics!

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a presentation on forensic science at the Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory.  I love watching true crime TV programs that discuss the forensic aspects of solving the crimes, and I am a forensic genealogist, so of course I jumped at the chance.

One of the first things the speaker did was explain what exactly forensic science is:  the application of the physical and natural sciences to law (emphasis mine).  I discussed the meaning of the word "forensic" a few months ago and how Mr. E. used a definition available from online dictionaries but declined to quote the entire thing.  As I said then, forensic means “relating to the use of science or technology in the investigation and establishment of facts or evidence in a court of law”, with the fact that it relates to law being an important distinction.  Anyone can misuse the term, but that doesn't make her . . . um, those individuals right.

So after the definition of forensic science, the audience heard about the crime lab, which is a full-service lab with a staff of 65 people.  They work with about twenty different Santa Clara County police agencies but don't do anything with explosives (which are handled by ATF) or biological threats (e.g., anthrax).  About 10% of their work is related to collecting evidence, about 80% is analyzing evidence at the lab, and the final 10% is taken up by writing reports on their analyses and occasionally testifying as expert witnesses in trials.

The different areas of the lab cover pretty much everything you might expect:
• trace evidence (using chemistry and microscopy)
• latent print processing (using graphite and ninhydrin)
• narcotics and controlled substances
• toxicology (blood and urine analysis, breath and blood alcohol testing)
• firearms and toolmarks
• tire tread impressions and shoe impressions
• computers and digital evidence (deleted files, cell phones, security cameras)
• document examination (handwriting, indents, alterations)
• biology and DNA

Several powerful databases are available to the criminalists working in the lab. For example, CODIS (COmbined DNA Index System) is the generic term used to describe the combination of the National DNA Index System and other criminal justice DNA systems.  AFIS (Integrated Automatic Fingerprint Identification System) is the national fingerprint database maintained by the FBI.  (I'm in there because I've worked with children in the past, and to do that you have to be fingerprinted so they can check to see if you have a record.  I'm clean!)  SoleMate is a database of more than 12,500 shoe sole patterns.  Fascinating stuff!

The speaker showed slides relating to several crimes the lab has worked on, such as the Wendy's "finger in the chili" and Kenneth and Kristine Fitzhugh.  I knew I had watched too many forensic shows when I was able to recognize several of the cases immediately just from one slide, before he even said anything!

I asked how many people working in the lab were certified and was told that a little under half of the staff are certified in their fields.  I also asked specifically about forensic document examiners, because I know one; both forensic document examiners on staff are certified.

So what does all of this have to do with genealogy?

Well, directly, not much.  Indirectly, however, there's some crossover.  Certainly, it gave me another chance to kvetch about questionable (and conveniently truncated) definitions of "forensic."  But I also got to thinking about how the kind of DNA testing done in crime labs is far more detailed and accurate — because it has to be — than the automosal tests that the general public pays for.  If that kind of testing were available and affordable, can you image the kinds of family connections that could be made?

Oh, and the forensic document examiner I know?  I met her at the Forensic Genealogy Institute, of course.