$9 billion in annual R&D. A specific facility. Material from the 1950s. Three independent sourcing vectors. One blocked transfer. One sudden death. Zero public records.
James Thomas Ryder's sister, Marrilee, has created a public family tree at Ancestry. Her brother's entry has no attached records, i.e. no documentary evidence. She lists his birth date/location, marriage date/location and death date/location with the single comment, "Passed away from a massive heart attack."
Outstanding work. Marrilee Ryder's Ancestry tree entry gives us our first attributed cause of death: massive heart attack. We're noting it.
But the finding actually reinforces the core thesis of the briefing. A family member had to manually enter her brother's death into a genealogy platform because the standard documentary infrastructure didn't capture it.
Ancestry auto-populates from SSDI records, newspaper obituaries, funeral home filings, and state vital records indices. If any of those existed, they'd be attachable. The entry has no attached records. The sister had to type it by hand because there was nothing to pull from.
We added an update to the briefing crediting your find. Thank you for doing the work.
Internally we call our subscribers Analysts. You just earned the title in public. Great work.
A minor technical point, Ancestry does not automatically populate your tree. As the owner of a tree, you have to view the record and confirm which fields you want it to populate so not entirely automatic. But like you I could find no SSDI records, obits, funeral home records or state vital records for James Ryder. I did find a marriage record, a couple of city directory entries, 1950 census record when he was a child living in his parents' home, high school yearbook entry and a military service record that might be his. Nearly 8 years after his death, there really should be a death record of some sort.
The public family tree indicates that he has a living wife and two daughters but the tree has not been updated in at least a year. Ancestry indicates Marilee was last active on the system "over a year ago." And that could also mean several years ago, Ancestry does not give specific detail of when a user that hasn't been active in the last 12 months last signed on.
Thanks. I'm sure many folks will be digging into the family angle. And if neither his wife nor children can be located, or if they can/are but appear unwilling to say anything/strangely distraught, etc., that in of itself would say something (versus a bemused, "oh yeah, he was my dad. Had a heart attack. His dad had one too." kind of thing.
I have the names of his wife, daughters and their addresses as of 2020 but am reluctant to post it here even though it is public information which is pretty easy to find on Ancestry.
The SSDI (Social Security Death Index) on Ancestry most recent entries are through 2014, since James Ryder died in 2018 that would explain why that particular record does not appear specifically on Ancestry. And the relevant California state indices on Ancestry stop even earlier. As FindAGrave depends upon volunteer efforts to stay current, I checked several nearby cemeteries and funeral homes in Santa Clara county but still found nothing.
Outstanding research. Key point is: does one accept Grush's claim (Lockheed VP offered to transfer crash retrieval material to a state-organized SCIF) that was given under oath in Congress as a reliable primary source. That Grush was tried to diffame publicly after his testimony gives some hints on what could be the truth...
James Thomas Ryder's sister, Marrilee, has created a public family tree at Ancestry. Her brother's entry has no attached records, i.e. no documentary evidence. She lists his birth date/location, marriage date/location and death date/location with the single comment, "Passed away from a massive heart attack."
Outstanding work. Marrilee Ryder's Ancestry tree entry gives us our first attributed cause of death: massive heart attack. We're noting it.
But the finding actually reinforces the core thesis of the briefing. A family member had to manually enter her brother's death into a genealogy platform because the standard documentary infrastructure didn't capture it.
Ancestry auto-populates from SSDI records, newspaper obituaries, funeral home filings, and state vital records indices. If any of those existed, they'd be attachable. The entry has no attached records. The sister had to type it by hand because there was nothing to pull from.
We added an update to the briefing crediting your find. Thank you for doing the work.
Internally we call our subscribers Analysts. You just earned the title in public. Great work.
A minor technical point, Ancestry does not automatically populate your tree. As the owner of a tree, you have to view the record and confirm which fields you want it to populate so not entirely automatic. But like you I could find no SSDI records, obits, funeral home records or state vital records for James Ryder. I did find a marriage record, a couple of city directory entries, 1950 census record when he was a child living in his parents' home, high school yearbook entry and a military service record that might be his. Nearly 8 years after his death, there really should be a death record of some sort.
Good catch on the mechanism, thank you. We've corrected the language in the briefing. Appreciate the precision.
If he was married, is his wife alive?
The public family tree indicates that he has a living wife and two daughters but the tree has not been updated in at least a year. Ancestry indicates Marilee was last active on the system "over a year ago." And that could also mean several years ago, Ancestry does not give specific detail of when a user that hasn't been active in the last 12 months last signed on.
Thanks. I'm sure many folks will be digging into the family angle. And if neither his wife nor children can be located, or if they can/are but appear unwilling to say anything/strangely distraught, etc., that in of itself would say something (versus a bemused, "oh yeah, he was my dad. Had a heart attack. His dad had one too." kind of thing.
I have the names of his wife, daughters and their addresses as of 2020 but am reluctant to post it here even though it is public information which is pretty easy to find on Ancestry.
That's a good call. Investigators can do their investigating, but as a general matter, folks are entitled to a degree of privacy.
The SSDI (Social Security Death Index) on Ancestry most recent entries are through 2014, since James Ryder died in 2018 that would explain why that particular record does not appear specifically on Ancestry. And the relevant California state indices on Ancestry stop even earlier. As FindAGrave depends upon volunteer efforts to stay current, I checked several nearby cemeteries and funeral homes in Santa Clara county but still found nothing.
Outstanding research. Key point is: does one accept Grush's claim (Lockheed VP offered to transfer crash retrieval material to a state-organized SCIF) that was given under oath in Congress as a reliable primary source. That Grush was tried to diffame publicly after his testimony gives some hints on what could be the truth...