Mar Eak or possibly Eak Mah, chinese WWI cook who served with my grandfather
I found some pictures and documents about a WWI Chinese man that is labeled Mar Eak, our cook. The picture is dated 1918. I know he was born in the US (California) and lived in El Paso Texas. He married Eugenia Lagos in El Paso in 1921. Eugenia's mother was Paula Lagos and she lived with them.
I know that the Chinese sometimes use the family name first and then their given name. So his name could be Mah Eak. I did find some documents but became very interested in this topic because of his minority status/interracial marriage/WWI. If anyone has any information on this person or topic, please let me know. Thank you.
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Re: Mar Eak or possibly Eak Mah, chinese WWI cook who served with my grandfather
Hi:
Mar Eak was born 12 Aug 1895 in Frisco, CA. He was married to Eugenia Lagos in El Paso County, Texas 22 June 1920.
Mar Eak is also shown registering for the WWI draft, living at 610 N. El Paso, El Paso, Tx, birth date 8/11/1890 (he probably lied to be old enough to have been drafted), natural born citizen, born San Francisco, restaurant business, single, race: mongolian, 6/5/17.
I looked at a couple of newspaper subscription sites for anything on him but found nothing.
Hope this helps!
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Re: Mar Eak or possibly Eak Mah, chinese WWI cook who served with my grandfather
Yes, thank you, I had all that information. I really don't know too much about the Chinese in Mexico. Apparently he lived in an apartment or neighborhood with several other Chinese men, all last named Mah. I saw the Census for I think 1920. I noticed that several other Chinese people listed Mexico as their native country and Spanish as their native language. His wife was Mexican.
Eak H. Mah (from census) could not read or write English. He was a waiter and two of the men he lived with were also waiters and one was the owner of the restaurant. I also found several U.S. Directories with him and his wife listed. I also know her mother lived with them at some point. Her name was Paula Lagos.
I plan to do some research about the Chinese immigrants, especially in Mexico. Apparently, the general population (white America) didn't care about the interracial marriage seeing as they were both minorities. Nonetheless, I would be interested to know if they had any children or other family. I have a couple of pictures of him that I think they would like to see, so if you have any ideas on where I could look, please let me know.
Thank you so much again. Happy hunting!
Lisa Carvallo (Beaudoin)
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Re: Mar Eak or possibly Eak Mah, chinese WWI cook who served with my grandfather
Hi:
Your quest really sounds interesting. I just popped into amazon.com and typed in "chinese mexico" and got some really interesting looking hits.
I think you're going to end up having a lot of fun.
Best of luck, Terri
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Re: Mar Eak or possibly Eak Mah, chinese WWI cook who served with my grandfather
HEY thats a great search, right? I also just saw on the a net flex program called the forgotten WWI soldiers (Af.American, Chinese, other minorities), etc. I was thinking maybe to try to contact them as well!
Incendentally, I have discovered that one of my grandfather's younger brothers was the first man from New Hampshire to die in WWII. He was killed at Hickam Field. He got a purple heart, which was presented to his family. Any idea where I can find it? His name was Maurice St. Germain and he died Dec. 7, 1941.
Nice to talk to you! And thank you so much!
Lisa
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Re: Mar Eak or possibly Eak Mah, chinese WWI cook who served with my grandfather
Lisa:
That sounds pretty cool. I guess that purple heart was presented posthumously to the family and someone must have it in their attic or garage. Time for a treasure hunt, huh?
Terri
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