People Search: Where do I go next?

I used to work for The Flying Tiger Line. In 1962 an airplane went down in the Pacific; on board was a flight attendant, Barbara Wamsley. Her family is now researching her for a geneaology project. I decided to help out and used familiar searches: google.com, Flying Tiger Alumni Assoc., airplane crashes, etc. So far I’ve only come up with the fact that indeed, someone named Barbara Wamsley died in an airplane crash in 1962.

I know this about her: she had a young son when she died, she was hired out of Chicago, she had been a waitress. If alive now she would be about 65 years old. She was hired by FTL in San Francisco, probably got a passport there, most likely in 1960-61. She was living with a Captain that I’ve also tried to research using the same search modes. He passed away about five years ago.

Without spending any money on the researchers in the business, where would you go next? I’ve advised her family researcher to check with the State Department for passport info (it should be open info at this point) and he’s promised to keep in touch.

I remember this woman (young at the time) because she was fabulously beautiful, funny, bright. I’d like to help this guy out.

Any suggestions?

What is the researcher trying to find out?

I did a quick check on FREE PUBLIC RECORDS through ROOTSWEB. checked her name etc. in Calif. death records—was she from Ohio? Shows a birthdate of 5/8/32—68 TODAY. Death date of 3/16/62.

Death certificate S/B available.

Hi StrayKat – are you still there?

Through a Google search tonight, I found your 10-year-old post concerning my father’s cousin, Barbara Vamos Walmsley. She used to visit us in Chicago when I was a girl. We all loved her and were devastated when her plane went down. I’ve tried sporadically to locate her son, who would be my second cousin; but I don’t even know his first name. I have a photo of his Mom as a young girl that I would like for him to have.

It appeared from your post that you were doing a little research as a favor for the family. If you know how to contact a family member, could you put them in touch with me?

I’ll keep this short because I don’t know if this will even reach you, but am including my e-mail address.

Thank you!
Adele Leslie Holcomb
adele_h@yahoo.com

I sent a private message to straykat, hopefully he will be along soon.