Mystery Man
by Lorraine Frantz Edwards

After two days of exhaustive searches, Ancestry.com informed me “Your Search for Donald Eugene Brubaker returned zero good matches.” I didn’t limit my search to “hints”; I went to every available resource: Census, Military, Marriage, etc. I also checked for information in LDS Family Search. Not a unique response when searching for our relatives but this was the response regarding a man who attained his one-hundred birthday.

On August 9, 2019, on NBC “Today” show, Al Roker announced the names of men and women who were celebrating their one-hundredth birthday. The name Donald Brubaker captured my attention because I have Brubaker in my family tree. I quickly started searching Census records (on Ancestry) and initially found a potential family. However, after several hours I was compelled to delete the potential parents and siblings. I deleted… because the son named Donald later appeared in death records. Military records were promising until the serviceman named Donald later appeared in death records.

How is it possible that a man can live for one-hundred years and records of his life are not readily available? In this age of mass-media, with so many records available on Ancestry.com, why can’t I find Donald Eugene Brubaker?

After eleven days of “vacation” from Ancestry.com, I returned to do additional research regarding Donald Brubaker (but no new hints or sources). To my delight, a man read the story and contacted me with possible information. It is my prayer that other researchers will contact me with positive identification of “the mystery man.”