BYU helping Defense Department find living relatives of soldiers who remain MIA
Jun 25, 2018, 8:17 PM | Updated: 9:11 pm
PROVO, Utah – It may look like any computer lab on the campus of Brigham Young University, but a room in the Joseph F. Smith building has become home to a special military project, focusing on family history.
“I had one case that was 10 hours and another one that went on for 50,” said Jessica Gourley, a recent graduate in the family history program at Brigham Young University.
It’s where family history students have invested hours and hours to connect American soldiers who remain missing in action, to surviving family members today.
As time has gone on, next of kin records are outdated and the closest living relatives of the time the soldiers were deployed, have long passed away.
“You have to look for vital records, census records, obituaries, you have to find,” said Lisa Stokes. “It’s not just about recording histories, rather finding living relatives where the Army can get DNA samples to identify remains of unknown soldiers.”
Stokes has been at the university as a research, and has been overseeing the effort.
“When you call a child of a service member, they definitely know, they want to tell you the stories that they know and that is really fun to be able to talk to them and to let them tell their stories thank them for the sacrifice their family has made,” said Stokes.
More than 82,000 soldiers are still listed as missing in action, dating back to World War II.
There was a specific reason the U.S. Army came to BYU for help.
“They came to BYU, because we have the only family history bachelor’s degree in the country,” said Jill Crandell, professor of family history at BYU.
The students have been gaining real life experience in tracing someone’s roots. Since last fall, students have completed 48 of the 66 cases the Defense MIA Accounting Agency needs help with.
“It is exciting to be a part of something that I can give back a small portion to help bring closure to families who never got to see their loved ones, they went off to war and that was it for them,” said Kimberly Brown, a student who has also helped with the project.
The Army has already recognized BYU for the progress in helping to make it possible to perhaps finally return these soldiers home.
“This is an amazing project for our students and it is a wonderful way for us to give back to our country and to those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Crandell said.
