Solomon Islands Project Moves Ahead

The special website is now up and running to accept donations in support of the Solomon Islands Oral History Project.  To make a donation:

Go to http://www.tighar.org/
Click on "TIGHAR Store" in the menu on the right-hand side of the screen
Click on "Donate" in the menu on the left-hand side
Click on "Donate to the Solomon Islands Oral History Project"
And follow the prompts

The project is tentatively scheduled to begin about August 17, with the team returning home by August 31.  We're getting to work now on logistic arrangements and fieldwork strategy.  Stay tuned for updates, and thanks much to all who have contributed or will contribute to this project.

Opportunities to Support Specific Research Projects

There are now sites on the TIGHAR website where you can make tax-deductible contributions not only to TIGHAR generally but to specific projects and activities. These include:


• Ongoing DNA research;

• Research into Fred Noonan’s ancestry and search for his DNA;

• The oral history project with the Nikumaroro colonial veterans in the Solomon Islands (planned for this June or July);

• The search of the Fiji Colonial War Memorial Hospital for the bones found on Nikumaroro in 1940 (scheduled for this May);

• The unglamorous but absolutely necessary analysis of artifacts; and

• The even less glamorous but equally necessary analysis of faunal material from the Seven Site.

Here’s the link to the donations page: http://tighar.org/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=49

Believe me, every little bit helps.

Strange Reports

For those who've been asking:

1. Yes, we're aware of the reports that AE's plane, with skeletons in it yet, has been found in New Guinea.  Since (a) there are lots of airplane wrecks in New Guinea; (b) there are lots of skeletons in New Guinea; (c) New Guinea is a couple thousand miles from Howland Island, from the vicinity of which her last generally accepted radio messages emanated; and (d) the alleged finders have been trying to get up-front payments for photographs of the wreck, we're not taking the reports very seriously.

2. Yes, we're aware that there's a project underway to recover Earhart DNA from envelopes she may have licked.  Since we already have a reference sample of Earhart DNA, we're not altogether sure why this project is being undertaken.  The researchers have not contacted TIGHAR to exchange notes.

For the latest on TIGHAR's own DNA research, see http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/59_DNAResearch/lewisstatement.pdf.

Tom