Would you like to help identify unknown sailors who were killed on the USS Arizona?

Question

See Fold3 article: Make a Difference this Memorial Day.  They are offering free DNA tests to descendants of sailors

Answer 1

I don't exactly know how but I would love to help any way that I could

Comments

They are looking or descendant DNA

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There is now a Space Page and a Memorial Day Pop-up Challenge for the entire casualty list.  If you'd like to participate in this, we'd love to have you join us!

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I deleted my original comment due to the fact that I got projects mixed up! They both involved World War II. In my excitement to honor these folks, I made a big mistake. Hopefully, I have removed everything that needed to be removed from the profiles of The Ghost Army men that I incorrectly tagged as Pearl Harbor casualties.

Answer 2

This is very interesting. I am a volunteer with MIA Recovery Network and I have helped to find families in similar situations, the latest being the Tokyo Prison Fire casualties who are buried as unknowns in Manila. DPAA has finally agreed to pursue identification only after a descendent (with my help) found family members for 60% of the total casualties, missing and identified.

I do know that DPAA has been working on identifications but I did not know that they sanctioned finding families for the USS Arizona.

What they are looking for is DNA from a family member to add to their database to help with identification. Ultimately, they would love to have DNA from the family of every MIA.

What I have done with cases I have helped with, is to make up a wikitree profile for the MIA and add as much info as possible in the hopes of being contacted by a family member when I have a difficult case.

 Always note at the bottom of the profile, in italics, that the person is listed as missing and I list the place and date as well as where the person is memorialized.

I then take that info and add it to the profiles of family members, with a link to the MIA so that someone reading the profile can easily click and find the profile.

Do you have a list of names that you are working with?

Also, it should be made clear that the DNA collected is never shared publicly. The test is strictly for the database for possible identification.

Comments

I only have the information in the fold3 Article.

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There is now a Space Page and a Memorial Day Pop-up Challenge for the entire casualty list.  If you'd like to participate in this, we'd love to have you join us!

Answer 3

Robin, thank you for posting this.

I have created a Space Page for the USS Arizona's casualties on 7 Dec 1941.  My hope, when I created the page, was that it would not only provide a memorial for these casualties here on WikiTree, but would also help Operation 85 by creating linked, documented profiles for them to work in their search, whether for DNA testers or for identification through families.

Now, a Memorial Day Pop-up Challenge has been announced to create (and link, categorize and improve) profiles for all 1,177 of the USS Arizona's Pearl Harbor casualties.

Comments

What a wonderful idea Susan.  It should be a huge help.

Answer 4

I was contacted by a woman that is working with the USS Arizona.  She is trying to find a DNA contributor for a specific individual that is missing:  Earnest Hersea Angle born 2 Feb 1922.  His father was Vessie E. Angle from Quinwood, WV.

He was in my Angle family tree (in ancestry) as I tried to find 6 missing sibling from my German ancestor who immigrated in the 1760's,  I discovered at the time, that Earnest is a descendent of Peter I Angle of Wirtz, Franklin Co, Virginia.  Earnest is one of 85 missing, that have yet to be identified from the Pearl Harbor bombing.  He was a fireman at Pearl Harbor.  Not sure if he served on a ship.  

More information is available at ussarizona.navy

Comments

I see that Ernest Hersea Angle doesn't have a WikiTree profile, but he is on the list of casualties from the USS Arizona, so he was assigned to the ship and on board at the time of the bombing, according to the records.  

Would you like to respond to the Pop-up Challenge this weekend and add his profile, link it to your family and link it to the casualty page?  If you would, a post on the Pop-up Challenge G2G post will announce you're taking care of him.

Thank you for remembering him.

Answer 5

Francis Pedrotte in household of Dennis Pedrotte, "United States Census, 1920" • FamilySearch  My mother in law was a Pedrotti from Catawissa, Missouri.   He appears to be from one of her cousin lines.  "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M84T-DVW : 2 February 2021), Francis Pedrotte in entry for Dennis Pedrotte, 1920.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pedrotti-58

Comments

Thank you for adding Francis's profile, Laura.  I took the liberty of adding the categories and stickers for his service.  You didn't list a "start date" so I just put in "unknown."  I hope that's OK.

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yes  glad you did I wasn't sure what to do for those.  ///////////////he enlosyed September 1940 according to this news artivle on hos find a grave link  PVT Francis James “Bud” Pedrotti (1919-1941) - Find a Grave Memorial

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Thank you, Laura.  I've added the enlistment date to the sticker.