Narrative:

I was working two sectors; jackson-low & kewanee-low; combined on R65. Due to multiple transceivers; there were occasional transmission overlaps. There was severe weather that required all nearby aircraft to deviate. While working other aircraft in the sectors; I noticed a discrete uncorrelated beacon climbing north out of jackson approach; I did a flight plan readout on the code and found it not stored; it kept climbing through 11000 so I figured it was a VFR aircraft that had gotten local service at jackson but then forgot to squawk 1200. I did not call jackson approach to inquire if they knew who it was. Moments later aircraft X called to ask if people were getting through the weather at mei VORTAC. I initially thought it was a high-altitude aircraft on the wrong frequency; which happens routinely; so I tried an add/find aircraft X to find the correct sector/frequency but found the flight plan not stored. I saw that the previously noted uncorrelated beacon was climbing into the flight levels now so it was obviously not VFR and very likely my mystery aircraft X. I got his assigned altitude and he idented for me; I got a flight plan entered and ensured we were on the same page with his clearance and got him handed off to high-altitude for higher.during the several minutes surrounding the uncorrelated beacon's climb out of jan; I had climbed several mei departures to FL230; so it is possible aircraft X mistook one of their clearances in order to continue his climb. That's the only way I foresee him getting a climb clearance; although I certainly didn't notice his call prior to his weather inquiry. The more curious question to me is what happened between jan/ZME automation: the jan approach controller must have had a track and I'm sure he thought ZME accepted the data block transfer; but there was no data block in ZME and no flight plan.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZME Controller reported observing an untagged aircraft climbing. A few minutes later an unknown aircraft called the controller asking about routings through weather. Controller had unknown aircraft ident and verified it was from unknown calling pilot.

Narrative: I was working two sectors; Jackson-Low & Kewanee-Low; combined on R65. Due to multiple transceivers; there were occasional transmission overlaps. There was severe weather that required all nearby aircraft to deviate. While working other aircraft in the sectors; I noticed a discrete uncorrelated beacon climbing north out of Jackson Approach; I did a flight plan readout on the code and found it not stored; it kept climbing through 11000 so I figured it was a VFR aircraft that had gotten local service at Jackson but then forgot to squawk 1200. I did not call Jackson Approach to inquire if they knew who it was. Moments later Aircraft X called to ask if people were getting through the weather at MEI VORTAC. I initially thought it was a high-altitude aircraft on the wrong frequency; which happens routinely; so I tried an add/find Aircraft X to find the correct sector/frequency but found the flight plan not stored. I saw that the previously noted uncorrelated beacon was climbing into the flight levels now so it was obviously not VFR and very likely my mystery Aircraft X. I got his assigned altitude and he idented for me; I got a flight plan entered and ensured we were on the same page with his clearance and got him handed off to high-altitude for higher.During the several minutes surrounding the uncorrelated beacon's climb out of JAN; I had climbed several MEI departures to FL230; so it is possible Aircraft X mistook one of their clearances in order to continue his climb. That's the only way I foresee him getting a climb clearance; although I certainly didn't notice his call prior to his weather inquiry. The more curious question to me is what happened between JAN/ZME automation: the JAN approach controller must have had a track and I'm sure he thought ZME accepted the data block transfer; but there was no data block in ZME and no flight plan.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.