Family Search on Military Repatriation of Deceased Persons

The repatriation of deceased military persons in foreign lands and connecting them to families at home has always been a difficult matter. Only till the advent of DNA has much of that been possible today.

It generally begins with a government agency’s exhumation of bodies killed on the battlefield and then attempting to identify who they are and how best to connect them to their biological family. This involves a great deal of science, DNA extraction, and genealogical sleuthing. Sometimes the identification of the bodies is made, and families are connected, while in another case, there simply isn’t enough evidence to make an identification, or it is impossible to locate related family members.

So, investigators have quite a task and struggle to identify who these soldiers are and how to identify and reconnect them with specific families. The desired outcome, therefore, satisfies both of those objectives. Of course, in many circumstances, either one of those conditions cannot be made and the repatriation of the bodies does not bring identification of the deceased and his biological family.

GEN-FIND’s work, therefore, is an extension of the military recovery program’s effort to help identify these deceased persons and then attempt to locate their family members from their possessions, DNA determinations and whatever else information the case provides us. Our firm will work with all those programs to help with the identification of military personnel and their families.