Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Two Men—Or One?


Trying to determine which of two names represents the man who was my paternal grandfather has been challenging. Not only do I know nothing, personally, of Theodore Puhalski, but no one else in my family knew anything of the man, either. In fact, that name was a total surprise when it was first presented to our family.

As for John T. McCann, however, I have older relatives who knew him personally. Of course, these were the memories of young children and teenagers who, before his 1952 passing, once called him Grandpa.

I never met the man, of course, as he was gone before I was born. But every time I stare into my bathroom mirror, his face is looking back at me. How do I know? His photographs tell me.

As for the similarity between this man and my own father, it is unmistakable. The two are assuredly related.

How could that be, though, if the 1905 census shows the father of my father to be a man named not John T. McCann, but someone with a surname like Puhalski? Wouldn’t that be the actual blood relation?

All I know about John T. McCann is what I’ve found in government documentation—plus the few stories family members have told me. I know—at least according to a copy of his death certificate—that he was born in Brooklyn on August 7, 1876. And that he died, seventy five years later, in Queens, on April 12, 1952.

Though I can see from census records that he was a machinist by trade—the 1925 New York State census showed he advanced to the level of foreman—I know, thanks to family stories, how talented he was at crafting custom-designed adaptive devices to allow his elderly wife, by then a diabetic amputee, to continue attending to such activities of daily living as washing the dishes or cleaning the house.

I also know he worked at a printing concern. Judging from the impressed tone of my older sister when she’d recount the fact that he worked for “Mergenthaler,” I’d gather that it was a big deal kind of place to work.

But that was just it—that big deal kind of job. As it turned out, when we cousins and siblings put our heads together to figure out just what it was about this big, mysterious story about our heritage and why it was hidden, it all seemed to center around this chance for a job.

At least, that was the best we could figure…


Above, top left: Photograph of John T. McCann, from the McCann family personal collection; below: Logo from the 1896 stock certificate of the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, courtesy Wikipedia, in the public domain. 

12 comments:

  1. Iggy made the point yesterday about the increasing anti-German and anti-Polish sentiment. As German-sounding as Mergenthaler is, maybe they weren't hiring Polish.

    Thinking about my own name-changing ancestor, I recall that the name he chose was the same surname of the man he had worked for in that "previous life." I wonder if Puhalski and McCann had some kind of connection, even generations before.

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    1. While I know it is a popular misconception that people's ancestors "changed their name at Ellis Island," I would love to learn more about just how--and why--immigrants changed their name. At least in this case, this is not simply a matter of shortening an impossible-to-pronounce, foreign-sounding name...or our surname would have ended up being something like "Puch."

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  2. I was going to say something dumb like he looked a bit like Boris (from Rocky and Bullwinkle) - perhaps it is the hat - and his mysterious "springing into existence" in 1920 that made me think something like "Russian Spy." Which of course, is simply ridiculous.

    Perhaps knowing more about Ottmar Mergenthaler would tell us something, so I looked... He was born and raised in Germany, where he apprenticed as a watchmaker, but in his 18th year he came to America to escape conscription.

    Mergenthaler's first major customer was The New York Tribune, which published its first linotyped edition on 3 July 1886.

    Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1894, the inventor spent his last several years in several distant warm-weather states before returning to Baltimore, where he died at only 44 years of age in 1899.

    It would seem John T.'s "personal" post dates the inventor.

    However, Mr. Google tells us that a Joseph McCann was "a world champion Linotype type setter" around 1918-1920 working for the NY Herald.

    http://www.chicagohs.org/documents/chicago-history-magazine/ChicagoHistory_Vol28No1_Rumble.pdf (pdf page 4 - article page #46)

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    1. Just to put this in perspective, John T. was supposedly born in the same year as Ottmar Mergenthaler's invention published its first linotyped edition: 1876.

      Of course, we can't ever be sure of what John T. has told us.

      What a fascinating tale of the "swifts" of typesetting--the way it used to be. Thanks for including that link, Iggy! I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of it.

      While I'm sure this is merely coincidence, it is interesting to note that John T.'s son's middle name was also Joseph.

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  3. Both men (if there was two) should have signed up for the WWI draft.

    https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-26519-22919-48?cc=1968530

    Oct 6... Aug 6... ? Hmmm....

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    1. That John McCann shows up in the 1918 and 1925 City Directory at 421 W57th Street.

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    2. You are right Patrick - it would appear that John is a different one. Most curious as to where either John T McCann or Thomas or Theodore Puhalski's WWI draft record is.... I think both should have enrolled...

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    3. While the date similarity--the sixth--is tempting, as Patrick mentioned, the city directory trumps any possible birth date transcription problems.

      However, it was that very question--what about that draft enrollment card--that served to lead me to some helpful documents.

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  4. If he looks like your Dad then he must be your Grandpa! What a mystery. Hope you figure it all out! :)

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    1. That's what I'm thinking, Far Side. And I think I have some other photos I can share. Unfortunately, the scans are pretty grainy, so it may be hard to discern the details--or the similarities. But believe me--they're there.

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  5. So curious, Jacqi, first time I've heard of anyone taking an Irish name to avoid discrimination.

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    1. For the most part, immigrant groups in America went through phases--at first, being discriminated against, then gradually becoming accepted and interwoven into the national fabric. Besides, I think the Irish gained something of a "critical mass" in some urban centers--there were just so many of them, and, thankfully, a good number of whom sported convivial personalities, that they won the hearts of their neighbors, at least in a civic way. As for life being good enough for them to convince other ethnic groups to assume their identity...well, I don't know. But that's the story that was handed down to me.

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