Police find family of dead twins (thanks to genealogists)

[Gormy Cuss]

It took 11 days and the help of dozens of strangers, but police have finally been able to locate the family of a pair of reclusive twin sisters who were found dead in their California home last month....

Police usually do not release the names of the dead without first informing their relatives, but the sisters' shrouded lives made that impossible, said Detective Matt Harwood with the El Dorado County sheriff's office. With little information about the twins' personal lives to work from, investigators issued a public plea this week asking for help in notifying the sisters' next of kin.

The response was overwhelming. Emails and phone calls poured in and with the help of amateur genealogists who read media accounts of the sisters' deaths, investigators tracked down a first cousin and two second cousins late Wednesday....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/03/06/national/a151247S56.DTL

[kdmorris]

1. That is very cool!

I love it when it's used for good

[Gormy Cuss]

2. I have to say, I wish I'd thought of it.

I suspect it would be relatively easy to find early 20th century census records for their parents and work forward from that.
That's of course assuming that other, more recent records would be hard to find.