Episode 254 - Bent Prop Project Bringing Home World War II Casualties / Arizona Woman Finds Birth Family, Becomes “Search Angel”

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org.  David starts out sharing details of his experience taking a cruise on America’s oldest active naval ship, the USS Constitution. The guys begin Family Histoire News with a note that this past week marked the 100th anniversary of the start of the Meuse Argonne Offensive in World War I. The action led to the end of the war, but cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides.  Next, a woman who was abandoned near Rochester, NY in 1978, known as “Baby Lilac,” is looking for her birth family. Hear some of the details. Then, DNA has come through again in identifying the previously unknown remains of a World War II soldier killed on a Pacific Island in World War II in 1943 at the age of 21. David’s Blogger Spotlight then shines on Jen Rickards of Union, Missouri. Her site, AuntieJensTrees.blogspot.com, features great blogs on memories of 9/11, cemetery epitaphs and many other topics. Next, Fisher visits with Colin Colbourne of the “Bent Prop Project.” It’s an organization that has been searching for several years for remains of America’s war heroes, mostly from World War II. They have brought home several of the tens of thousands of remains still missing from the war, and the participants often do so paying expenses out of their own pocket. Then, Tempe, Arizona resident Alyson Gunner Johnson talks with Fisher about how her DNA test led her to her birth mother, which eventually caused her to become a “search angel,” helping other adoptees to find members of their birth families. Alyson explains how you might do the same. Fisher then catches up with “Team Green” from BYUtv’s Relative Race. The married couple talks about their first two weeks on the show, and the emotional experiences of finding family members they’ve never known. Tom Perry, the Preservation Authority from TMCPlace.com, then goes through some basics for those who may have water damaged documents and photographs as a result of Hurricane Florence. Tom will tell you how these and other family keepsakes may still be salvaged! That’s all this week on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show.