Linda

As with all things in life, nothing is absolutely the only way such things happened. Yes, I am sure that there were some families which did come and claim the remains of their loved ones during the reburial process. Especially if they lived close by and knew the rebuial process was going on.

The Contractors only cared about getting paid for their services and were paid by the body. Once they got paid by the Government contract, or they got credited for the recovery of the remains, what happened to the remains didn't matter to them. At what point in the process that they recieved that credit would determine to a large extent if the familes had much of an oppertunity to claim their loved ones.

Of course there was a lot of fraud going on with them in this process. They did not care if the remains were placed in a National Cemetery or a private plot. Especially if they were paid a little "extra" by a family to give them the remains of their loved ones.

Now of course this was under the table and not a part of the Government Contract. So I do not know of any records which exist of this happening. But since it would have been "under the table" and the Contractor would not have gotten paid for doing "private work", had it been discovered, I do not think it reasonable to expect that records were kept outside the individual family oral history of this happening.

So all that historians can go on is what was supposed to have happened, in the majority of cases. And that is no absolute in ever individual case.