Reunited

A woman wrote me recently looking for more information about her grandfather, Donald Delos Carr, who was included in my Carr database at Rootsweb. It seems her grandfather became estranged from her part of the family sometime after World War II and her parents had lost track of him. She wanted to find him and any associated relatives. She gave me some details, which I used to do research in Social Security Death Index, newspaper article archives at Ancestry.com, and on the Internet.

She told me he would be 93 years old if he were alive today. And she provided this text related to a military award he received from the Canadians.

CARR, F/O Donald Delos (J23590) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.428 Squadron - Award effective 2 October 1944 as per London Gazette dated 13 October 1944 and AFRO 2637/44 dated 8 December 1944. Born 1914; home in Fort William, Ontario; enlisted Port Arthur, 5 May 1941. Trained at No.7 BGS (graduated 18 December 1942) and No.4 AOS (graduated 5 February 1943). Commissioned 1943. Decoration sent by registered mail, 13 October 1949. No citation other than "completed...numerous operations against the enemy in the course of which [he has] invariably displayed the utmost fortitude, courage and devotion to duty". DHist file 181.009 D.3260 (RG.24 Vol.20637) has recommendation dated 11 July 1944 when he had flown 38 sorties (233 hours 10 minutes), 22 November 1943 to 21 June 1944. Part of this service with No.405 Squadron and included a crash on return from Berlin (30 January 1944) and aircraft damaged by enemy action (15 February 1944). As Bomb Aimer, this officer has attacked Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart,Ludwigshaven and other targets in France and Germany. Throughout his tour he has shown great steadiness and reliability and a high degree of skill, co-operating well at all times with his crew and giving invaluable aid to the navigator. For being very stead and reliable throughout many operations, I recommend the non-immediate award of the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Using Ancestry. I was able to find an Associated Press article dated 16 June 1949 in the Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman that said Donald Carr of Rochester, NY was unable to attend the awards ceremonies in New York the evening before. The article said the Canadian Air Force awarded three Americans with the Canadian government's Distinguished Flying Cross for services rendered during World War II. Fellow recipients were Lewis Ogle and Charles Benton. (See article, below)
I found a likely candidiate for Donald's Social Security Death Index record.

Name: Donald D. Carr
SSN: xxx-xx-xxxx
Last Residence: 32907 Palm Bay, Brevard, Florida, United States of America
Born: 26 Sep 1914
Died: 18 Oct 2000
State (Year) SSN issued: New York (Before 1951 )

I told her that it looked like he lived in Palm Bay, FL for a while as there were a number of phone listings there. He had also apparently lived at one time in Ohio. The reference was undated but was probably from the late 1980s or 1990s.

Name: Donald D Carr
Birth Date: Sep 1914
Street address: 270 Brownsfell Dr
City: Columbus
County: Franklin
State: Ohio
Zip Code: 43235
Phone Number: 614
Record Number: 727274956

I came across a nice description of the DFC in Canada. It tells how many Canadians were given the award in each of the major wars, but it doesn't report how many Americans were given the award. And I found a page that describes the No 405 Squadron in which he served. [In case you can't sort out the abbreviations in Donald's write up, he trained at No 7 Bomber and Gunnery School (BGS) and No 4 Air Observer School (AOS).]

The woman checked obituaries with the assistance of a local library in Florida and found the following:

DONALD CARRPALM BAY -- Donald D. Carr, 86, died Wednesday, October 18, 2000 at Holmes Regional Medical Center. Mr. Carr was born in Savannah, N.Y. He was a pilot for the Royal Air Force, and a navigator for the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. He was also a member of the VFW. Survivors include his children, Peter Carr of Valkaria, Susan Otten of Columbus, Ohio, Charles Carr of Rochester, N.Y., Karen Rise of Newark, Del., and Colleen Smith of Raleigh, N.C.; 13 grandchildren; brother, Robert Carr of Savannah, N.Y.; and sisters, Millie Edy of London Ontario, Canada, Martha McCallum of Kingston, Ontario, Canada and Carol Baker of Vestal, N.Y. Memorial services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, at Fountainhead Memorial Funeral Home in Palm Bay.

The woman who wrote was quite pleased to have reunited her family after many years. She thanked me for listing his name in my database and for helping her out.

UPDATE: I've edited the article to remove Donald Carr's Social Security Number at the request of relatives. The availability of these numbers on the Social Security Death Index has changed in recent years due to identity theft related to death records. Rootsweb no longer makes the records available, but Ancestry provides access to full records ten years after an individual's death and partial records that omit only the SSN for records less than ten years old. This death took place over a dozen years ago, but out of an abundance of caution I've edited out the number. The other information is easily retrieved through public records searches.