Purple Hearts Reunited Special: Experience a Return Ceremony + Honor our Researchers + Receive our Brick Wall Research Tips. Join us and the Genealogy Interest Group of the St. Andrew Society of Illinois (GIG-SASIL) for a special program featuring the charitable foundation, Purple Hearts Reunited (PHR), whose mission is "to return lost or stolen military medals of valor to veterans or their families, in order to honor their sacrifice to the nation."  Since 2016, twenty research volunteers from our and GIG-SASIL's groups have been identifying the veterans of now over 100 lost purple hearts, writing the veterans' biographies and finding either the veteran or their living next of kin so PHR can return these lost medals. Come to this moving program to experience a PHR Return Ceremony where a local family will welcome their hero's lost purple heart back home where it belongs. Help PHR honor our 20 research volunteers. And receive advice on how these volunteers used some interesting research techniques to get past some pretty incredible genealogical brick walls.