I didn’t mean to imply that they shouldn’t do it. I meant that, even if they did do it, they’d still miss a lot of people.
Or maybe not.
Even if Ancestry, etc., told me that I had a third cousin in X County morgue, I probably could provide absolutely no assistance in identifying them. I don’t know ANY of my third cousins, and on one side of the family, a third cousin means somebody whose ancestors immigrated to the US at a different time from my ancestors, and from a part of Europe where records are hard to access even if they survived the last couple of wars.
(Also, if you uploaded the decedent’s profile to Ancestry and mine is on MyHeritage, you’re not going to find me in the first place, meaning you’ll need to upload to more than one site, which costs more than $99.)
If I know of a close relative who is missing, then I or another family member is probably already participating in the missing persons DNA program mentioned above. If I don’t know they’re missing, then I probably don’t know much if anything about them.
I actually know a most of my second cousins and some second cousins once or twice removed - and I still don’t know a single third cousin. The impression I get is that most Americans don’t know anyone more distantly related than first cousins (possibly once or twice removed). I might be able to help if the police or My Heritage told me I had a third cousin in the morgue - but only because I’ve built a family tree which has 974 people and I therefore might have names for the third cousin’s parents and siblings. * Most people, even those who sent DNA to the various companies don’t do that. I would not be able to identify the body.
I know lots of third cousins. Well, six. Their kids are mostly a mystery, though.
I know nothing of most of my first cousins, much less anyone farther afield. My known family tree at my generation or earlier is exactly 6 living people and ~10 dead ones. Of the next generation I know of ~8.
I’ll never know anything about anyone else more distant in either direction.
That situation may be a bit of an outlier, but I’ll also suggest it’s not rare either. Lotta ordinary people have either inherently small families and hence family trees, or have lost touch with or never even met major branches within their larger tree.
The idea of caring about genealogy is a total mystery to me. I recognize it’s a sorta popular hobby for many but it does nothing for me. Again I suspect that’s not a rare attitude.
I’ve never done any of those 23 and me things (just no interest) but I have to say I’d be bewildered if I ever was notified that some unknown body was shown to be somehow genetically related to me.
What would I be supposed to do? Feel bad about the death of someone I’ve never heard of? Take over and see to the proper burial of his/her body? Shrug and drop the notice into the trash?
I think all they would want you to do is confirm that you are related, however distantly, with the unknown person so they can close their case, The person has likely already been buried in a pauper’s grave somewhere so there’s not really anything else you would have to do.
Morally, it should be the same sort of reaction as if you were contacted that a distant relative had died and legitimately left you a large sum of money. If you would also shrug and drop that notice into the trash, then do that. If you would accept the money, then you should accept the responsibility, but it would largely be helping the authorities identify the body and perhaps making decisions about the pauper’s burial. I think you’re only supposed to care insofar as it’s another human being.
I asked my daughter, who worked in law enforcement, what happens when they find a dead body with no ID. Once the coroner has done their job and determined there was no foul play, finger prints are taken, dental records are made, DNA samples are taken, and the body is kept “on ice” for a short period of time. She also told me the different ways they then try to figure out who they are.
When they have enough unknown bodies, they have a cemetery dig a pauper’s grave, sometimes called a common or communal grave, and that’s where the bodies are put. They don’t keep them for a long time in hopes that someone will identify one of them.
If there’s an eventual match to a missing person, they can provide the relative with a bone or two, if they want that, so they can then bury it in a more appropriate place. This may not be true for all jurisdictions, but it’s true for many if not most.
Just mention it to other relatives who will likely pass it on to relatives you don’t even know.
But how would I know whether I am related to Jane Doe? They have a better idea than I would, because they have the DNA evidence.
The real benefit would be if they find multiple matches, preferably on different lines. For example, if Jane Doe is a third cousin to me and also a third cousin to you, but you and I show no genetic relationship, then a forensic genealogist can research all of the descendants of my great-great-grandparents and all of the descendants of your great-great-grandparents and see where the lines intersect.
Gift link to a Washington Post article about how Joseph James DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer, was identified using DNA.
[Investigator Paul] Holes used DNA recovered from a crime scene to find the killer’s great-great-great grandparents, who lived in the early 1800s. Branch by painstaking branch, he and a team created about 25 family trees containing thousands of relatives down to the present day.
Initial DNA work identified distant relatives — not a suspect. Holes said a team of five investigators spent four months building out family trees, name by name. They pored over census records, newspaper obituaries, gravesite locaters, and police and commercial databases to find each relative and, ultimately, DeAngelo.
Probably no one is going to that much trouble to identify one unknown deceased person. But it does demonstrate what is possible.
I don’t understand this - finding that someone is distantly related to me through a DNA match doesn’t tell you who they are and I won’t be able to confirm they are related to me if I don’t know them. Let’s just say the DNA match says this person is likely my third cousin. Third cousins share great-great-grandparents. I have about 80 second cousins on my mother’s side of the family. On average, a person has 5 or 6 third cousins for each second cousin , so figure I have about 400 third cousins. On that side of the family- there’s still my father’s side where I don’t know anyone except my own first cousins. So the DNA says this person is my third cousin- I don’t know them, I don’t know their name and I dont recognize the body. How does this help the police solve/close the case? The body is still a John or Jane Doe.
If they can confirm you are the unknown’s third cousin through your relatives, they can use genealogy to try and find any living second cousins or first cousins, a few of which may actually know the person. For example, there may be a cousin who only knows they haven’t been reach the unknown for a while, but then never reported them missing. The goal is to identify as many unknowns as possible, and this is one possible way to do it.
Says the guy with a Mansion AND a Yacht! 
He didn’t get those things by paying taxes, that’s for sure. 
Here in another thread is a cite to an unusually high quality news article about a famous unsolved unidentified decedent case now seemingly solved. Which then leads to reopening another famous unsolved murder case. Anyone in this thread will probably enjoy reading about that.
I listen to a lot “missing” podcasts, so it does not surprise me.
Tell me which ones you listen to. I would love to hear some to get more background for my screenplay.
I guess I was surprised there were so many people out there who could disappear and nobody would notice they were gone. It’s sad really.
The law and rules require them to make the attempt. Not to mention simple decency. And some open case file in Missing Persons could get closed.
Yep. For several jobs they took my fingerprints.
Good question.
It is not, afaik.
I got one of those DNA test things as a Christmas present. I keep getting emails that a 2nd cousin twice removed has been IDed for me. That is not very useful for IDing mispers.
Yeah, so they find some body is a 2nd cousin twice removed for me, and ask me if i know them- but of course i do not. And there are also privacy concerns here. But as my fellow Doctor has said- it is not the $99 test, it is the hundred if not thousands of staff hours to track all those links down. And there is no guarantee it will work.
And my relatives are/were in Ukraine which makes tracing more difficult. (Many of my relatives were sent to Dachau, and afterwards to Russian camps)
But, as has been mentioned, I would have no idea who that distant relative is, and is it is a 2nd or 3rd cousin, that means there are dozens if not hundreds of other cousins, some of whom might be closer or even know who they are.
Every single hit i have got from the DNA site has been a complete unknown to me- after the initial match.
Right.
Right- by using those hundreds or thousands of staff hours I mentioned. It is not “just $99” 
it could be - easily- 1000 staff hours@ $40/hr or $40,000.00.