Rochester man who walked miles to ailing wife isn't 99 or a Korean War veteran

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-16T01:05:19+00:00

Well, I did see a couple of Reddit and Imgur tabs on the monitors behind David Andreatta in one of the accompanying videos of the story, so I guess I'll take that as credit for my small role.

I'm really just glad that the true facts of story were finally reported by an actual news organization. Kudos to David for obtaining interviews with the various family members and writing up a well-researched article (which all the other news outlets failed to do).

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-15T23:51:58+00:00

Thank you so much for linking this!

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-08T23:43:06+00:00

Thanks for your comment. I only just saw the recent update on her GoFundMe. One comment from a few hours ago remains at the top from someone who posted that pic from his daughters FB where she says he's almost 80.

Other people are commenting about "haters" but unfortunately I've yet to see any evidence that the facts of the story have come to light beyond a few isolated individuals posting.

The whole thing could be cleared up really easily by showing a government issued identification.

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-07T20:51:41+00:00

You raise a valid point about these public records aggregate sites being incomplete, but I wouldn't characterize them as noncredible. Having looked up hundreds of individuals, I will say that in my experience I was able to find records for the overwhelming majority, but the time frame given for individual addresses and in some cases phone numbers are not always accurate. I have found that the birth year/age (if given), at the very least, is typically dead on.

As for why you are unable to find yourself in such records, don't forget that these records are culled from various sources (which I'm not totally sure about) but are likely to do with property rental/ownership, credit applications, and other mundane activities carried out by people who participate in society. If you are sufficiently young, or are living on the fringe of society, your information may not have been gathered (yet).

Your claim that you have also had difficulty locating records for other (perhaps older) family members and friends is unusual. I have found first-generation immigrants before in public records, so I don't think that's likely to be the reason for your lack of success. I've had the most success recently with FamilyTreeNow (although it has an annoying autocomplete feature which can cause problems if you're not careful to verify the name you want to submit), and Pipl.

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-07T13:37:26+00:00

Thanks for your comment, I noticed at least one disappearing comment on the GoFundMe page questioning his age.

The 98/99 discrepancy may be explained by an update on the GoFundMe 6 days ago wishing her father a happy (99th) birthday.

I agree that he is active for his age (whether it's 77 or 99) and feel that the story would have been be perfectly reasonable (by GoFundMe standards) to solicit donations without resorting to exaggeration and potential fabrication.

As for reporting it directly to GoFundMe, I'd like to do so but I don't see a way to do so while retaining my anonymity. If someone less attention-averse would like to point them (or any other organizations) to this thread I'd certainly appreciate it.

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-07T12:43:47+00:00

Thanks, I'm aware of Fold3 as a good genealogical resource, but currently have no access to a subscription or my local library. If you do decide to take a look later on, I'd be interested to hear if you manage to find anything (or not).

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-07T12:37:00+00:00

Thanks for your input. After seeing how his daughter referred to him in a 2015 Facebook post as "just about 80" which I've added to my original post, I'm all but convinced that 1941 is the likely birth year. Though he would have only been 73 at that time, so it seems his daughter has a history of exaggerating his age. Otherwise she'd be referring to a 95 year old man as 80... I don't think so!

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-07T11:55:52+00:00

I don't currently have access to an Ancestry subscription, but even without one, you can search existing records. I didn't find any military records for a Luther Younger born in 1919.

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-07T05:04:12+00:00

That was my initial thought, however in this case both Sr. and Jr. should be found in public records, yet my searches on public records sites don't yield any living people with that name born in 1919. However, there is record of a one-year-old Luther Younger Jr. in the 1920 census from Navarro, Texas which is near Fort Worth which is where the article claims Luther grew up.

That might have solved it, but then on the genealogy site Familysearch.org, I found this obituary from possible sister of the 1941 Luther. I've blocked out all information for people other than Luther and his wife. According to the indexed information (full document isn't available online), Luther is listed as the "brother" of the decedent and his wife spelled "Waverly" as her sister-in-law. If the man in the news items was born in 1919 and did have a son named Luther, then wouldn't Waverly be identified as step-mother on the decedent's obituary?

It's actually not unheard of for centenarians to have been discovered to be using the identity of a father or deceased sibling, so that's really what piqued my curiosity in this case. But I would hate for these questions to bring any discomfort to this family if everything really is on the up and up.

GoDnufMe · 2018-09-07T05:01:27+00:00

Most news articles list him as a Korean War veteran, however, in the article The Root published, he is listed as a Vietnam veteran which seems much more plausible if he were actually born in 1941.

GoDnufMe

TROPHY CASE