Fishy Orlando, Pulse Shooting Victims Records

I have been involved with genealogy for 20 years. I'm an avid database hound and actually work for a software company.

I'm involved with tracking adoptees through family trees, county clerk docs, online databases, and even use DNA to solve these puzzles.

I've had an Ancestry account for over 10 years, and can find ANYONE.

Let me give an example as to the extent.

One of my grandmothers was adopted (1930's), gets DNA submitted - comes back with hundreds of cousin matches. Only a third have family trees tied to their username, and of those - most are distant cousins, and only a couple are close enough to work with (1st - 2nd cousins)

Let's say that a 2nd cousin has the user name "sprinkles_the_cat45"... and no tree... what do I do?

I google variations of the username until I get a feel for who this person is (they post a review, pintrest, etc. with that user name or similar and using it for another site other than Ancestry.

If I find that sprinkles45 is used by the same Jennifer Jones several times - I can then run her name through Intelius or another people search. Most are free for basic info.

Tells me what cities she's lived, aprox age (within a yr or 2), other aliases (married/maiden names), and suspected relatives (same addresses, etc).

I THEN CREATE A TEST FAMILY TREE using her name and age. I search the suspected relatives intelius to get an idea of how old they are in relationship to each other (who's the hubby, dad/mom, kids, etc).

I play with this on the test tree and start searching birth certs, public records, etc.

UNLESS a name is like "Jennifer Jones" (pretty common) I WILL FIND THEM, and create my own tree for them - and then see how Grandma, or someone I'm working on relates.

To give you an idea, for just my father's DNA alone - I've matched 140 other DNA submittals to his tree down to the exact family path.

For example - If ancestry lists 30 users which are 4th cousins (predicted to be fourth cousins) - even without a user submitting a tree, I can FIND them - create a tree for their family - and see how they connect to my client/family.

When I source that connection - ancestry throws a hint saying - that this is how you probably connect. Then I can verify by seeing if the predicted relation matches the relation that I connected.

(example: user 'poop' with no tree is predicted to be a 4th cousin. I find them through people search and google/facebook, etc. - create a tree for them and find thaty their maternal ggg granma was a Poindexter who is definitely [able to source] related to my dad's Poindexters. When I plug them into my tree - it tells me that they are a 4th cousin once removed - validating the connection. (btw - we are no Poindexters...)

Bottom line.... I'm VERY VERY VERY GOOD AT THIS.

I research docs from late 1700's to the 2000's. I know how to find Obits, death records, birth records (certs, indexes, bibles, etc) - public records, yearbook photos, marriage certs, probate wills, and on, and on....

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So, I got curious... can I find these people? (the 49 dead from Pulse)

I started with obits (some were even laid to rest over the weekend). 10 days after incident... nothing for the first half (didn't go further). I see news reports mentioning family for some - Mom's dad's, brothers, sisters) but no true obits. Kinda weird.

But with the info that WAS supplied - it's MUCH more than I've ever needed to start trees and start finding records. (name and ages everywhere - with middle names, etc, family relations...)

So I did.

For 6-7 of the victims (all I had time for).

First 5, Nothing. Which is impossible. No Intelius, no public records, not birth certs, no marriage records for supposed parents.

The 6th was Antonio D Brown. There are so many people that know him that I knew that I would HAVE to find something. And I did. 7th - is Corey, still working on that one.

I found a public record for Antonio's step-dad (like 2 adresses, no birth, marriage, etc), strange intelius record, no intelius for Antonio himself though (despite service). One for his mom... (1 that only says she knows/ may be related to step-dad) BUT-

None of it makes sense...

Again, 20 fuking years I've done this. I know what records should pop-up, I know what the hell I'm doing.

Something doesn't add up with the records. Too few, too vague, most (all for some) missing completely.

I don't know if it's a hoax or not, but I know that shit doesn't add up with this.

People leave telling traces of their lives.

There are records of me living in my first apartment when I was 17. There's a record of my sister's first apartment 4 years ago. Some of these cats were in their late 20's/30's - and NO FUCKING RECORD?

And not just the Puerto Ricans - who may not have extensive US records...

I don't get it.

I don't have time to keep researching.

I'm calling out to you would-be sleuths... Subscribe to Ancestry for a month free trial (or use a people search like Intelius on yourself and family). Look up what comes up for you, friends, family.

THEN LOOK-UP ONE OF THESE VICTIMS. Nada (for the first 7 that I checked - and they were those who had lived in FL for a while - at least 10 yrs)

Even if they add something 2 days ago, they can't add it to publications like - "US Public records: 1950-1993 Vol 1"

Has anyone else tried digging? Am I in the Twilight Zone?