Addressed to the Unclaimed Persons - Private group on Facebook (note: if you don't already belong, you'll have to make a request to join):
Hey
Everyone,
Happy birthday! Unclaimed Persons
(UP) is one year old today! Well, more or less. I went to our old Facebook
environment and see that I first posted on June 5th of last year, so
this seems about the right date. I am delighted to tell you that in our first
year, we have managed to assist coroners and medical examiners in Hillsborough
County, FL (Tampa); Los Angeles County, CA; Travis County, TX; San Diego County,
CA; San Bernardino County, CA; and Fulton County, GA (Atlanta). All told, we
have successfully located family members for 83 unclaimed persons. Because of
your efforts, there are 83 families scattered across the country who are no
longer wondering about their lost loved ones. Take a moment to let that sink in
because it’s rather remarkable when you think about
it.
Given that this is our first
birthday, I thought it would also be a good time to share some news about our
future. I am beyond thrilled to tell you that Skip Murray, Keri Maurus and
Janis Martin will be your new leadership team. I’m delighted because I think
that Keri, Skip and Janis are an ideal combination to lead UP forward. Among
them, they have tons of case experience, outstanding research skills, a
contagious can-do attitude, an intimate knowledge of UP’s operations, and
astonishing organizational skills. I know that UP’s future is in the best
possible hands and will only grow stronger.
As to me, I will be “retiring,” if
that’s the right word! As you may or may not know, my involvement in all this
is largely accidental. I had quietly been researching cases for a few coroners’
offices for several years, and my RootsTelevision.com (RTV) partner, Marcy
Brown, and I decided this would be a good topic for a show. So we made one
focusing on a couple of cases I did. We went live with the show on
RootsTelevision.com a little over a year ago – sometime last May, as I recall.
Once we did this, RTV was inundated with emails from genealogists saying that
they wanted to do the same kind of thing. RTV is a small company and didn’t
want to become an obstacle or bottleneck to all the obvious enthusiasm for
helping tackle an important problem of national scope. I had recently started
playing with Facebook and knew that they had some sort of group functionality,
so I decided to launch a group there where folks could gather. I think most of
you know the story from there. This simple gathering morphed into the
organization we have today.
I am very pleased to have had a part
in bringing this quiet epidemic to the attention to a large group of people who
are in a position to do something about it. And I’m honored to have played a
leading role along with Dee Welborn, Terry Elliott and others in guiding UP
through its first year. My intention was to create a vehicle of sorts – an
environment where people interested in the topic could solve cases that were
provided by coroners. I also thought it was important to have a conventional
web presence, so I designed www.unclaimedpersons.org and had the
site created. But I never intended to run UP, and with the assorted hats I wear
in the genealogical world, it’s become increasingly difficult to juggle
everything.
So now seems a good time to step
aside. UP is stable and performing well, and will only get better under the
stewardship of Keri, Janis and Skip. I will assist with the transition, but
from this point on, future decisions about UP’s operations will be in the hands
of this capable troika!
Thanks to each one of you for all
you have contributed – your time, energy, enthusiasm and talents. And thanks
for the difference you’ve made in so many lives. You’re all amazing and it’s
been my privilege to work with you.
Take
care,
Megan
