9 days ago, I did a post, “Are the crew members of 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger still alive?,” on the astonishing similarities between the crew members of the Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger who all died in the tragic explosion on Jan. 28, 1986, and people alive today.
Not only are the doppelgängers of the same ages of the crew members if they had lived, the doubles also have the same names as the astronauts.
In the case of Challenger Mission Specialists Ronald McNair and Ellison Onizuka, their respective doppelgängers are their brothers, Carl McNair and Claude Onizuka.
Ronald and Carl McNair
Born on Oct. 21, 1950, Challenger’s mission specialist Ronald McNair would be 64 years old if he had not perished in the space shuttle explosion.
If he had lived, Ronald would look very much like his brother Carl McNair, who is an author, education consultant, inspirational speaker, and the founder and president emeritus of the Ronald E. McNair Foundation in honor of his brother.
Ellison and Claude Onizuka
Born on June 24, 1946 in Hawaii, Challenger Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka would be 68 years old today if he had not died in the explosion.
If Ellison were still alive, he would look just like this pic of his younger brother Claude, who is a Liquor Adjudication Board Member of the Department of Liquor Control, County of Hawaii, Hilo, Hawaii. Ellison and Claude both have the same eyebrows, same eyes, same crow’s feet wrinkles, same nose, even the same hair-parting.
A reader named Linda asked a very good question: “has anyone searched for records of those that claim to be “brothers” of the ones who died to see if they ever actually existed?”
The following are the results of my search.
The Search for the Brothers
Carl McNair
I searched on Ancestry.com for a “Carl McNair,” who claims to be the brother of astronaut Ronald McNair. Carl S. McNair’s LinkedIn page says his birthdate is Dec. 16; Wikipedia’s page on Ronald McNair says his parents are Carl C. and Pearl M. McNair. So I asked Ancestry.com to search all “birth, baptism and christening” records for “Carl McNair,” born on Dec. 16, whose father is Carl McNair and mother is Pearl McNair.
Result of search: Just one record was found, and it’s not of astronaut brother Carl McNair. The record is from Texas Birth Certificates 1903-1932, of Herschel John McNair, born on 12 Oct 1912 – Rosewood, Upshur, whose father was William McNair and mother was Pearl Watkins.
In other words, according to Ancestry.com, there is no Carl McNair, brother of Ronald McNair. Here’s the screenshot I took of ancestry.com’s search results, with the time (10:18 AM) and date (5/9/2015) when I took the shot in the lower right corner (circled in red).
↓ Click image to enlarge ↓
Just to be sure, I re-did my search for “Carl McNair,” this time without specifying the names of the parents. There were 8,850 results. So I narrowed the search to “Carl McNair,” whose father’s last name is McNair and whose mother’s first name is Pearl. That narrowed the results to 8,980, which include all persons whose last name is McNair or similar-sounding last names, e.g., McNare, McNear, Mackner. Of those 8,980 results, I found no Carl McNair whose father’s name is (also) Carl McNair and whose mother’s first name is Pearl.
No parent names were given for these 3 Carl McNairs:
- Carl W. McNair, b. Sept 2, 1950
- Carl F. McNair, b. Feb. 9, 1954
- Marcus Carl McNair, b. Dec. 23, 1952
Since astronaut Ronald McNair was born on Oct. 21, 1950, we can rule out #1 Carl W. McNair, born on Sept. 2, 1950, as Ronald’s brother. That leaves us with Carl. F. McNair and Marcus Carl McNair, neither of whom is “Carl S. McNair” — the name of astronaut brother Carl McNair on his LinkedIn page.
Claude Onizuka
I also asked Ancestry.com to search for the birth records of “Claude Onizuka,” the alleged brother of astronaut Ellison Onizuka. According to Wikipedia’s entry on Ellison Onizuka, his father was the late Masamitsu Onizuka, his mother is Mitsue Onizuka.
Result of search: “Your search for Claude Onizuka returned zero good matches.”
Here’s the screenshot I took of ancestry.com’s search results, with the time (10:39 AM) and date (5/9/2015) when I took the shot in the lower right corner (circled in red).
↓ Click image to enlarge ↓
Just to be sure, I re-did the search for “Claude Onizuka,” this time without putting in the names of the parents. There were 36 results, none of which is Claude Onizuka.
In other words, according to Ancestry.com, no one named Claude Onizuka or Carl S. McNair (brother of Ronald McNair) had ever been born in the United States.
~Éowyn
