Drinking Ballatine beer in my great-great-grandfather's bar

My 2x great-grandfather, Michael Mulcahy owned a bar at 227 Hamilton Ave., close to his home at 85 Luquer St. According to the Real Estate Record and Builder's Guide, in 1885 he took out a $1,500 chattel mortgage from P. Ballantine & Sons for "Saloon Fixtures."* He did the same in 1886;** I'm not clear on whether these were two separate loans, or if the latter was a continuation or relisting of the former.

According to beerhistory.com, brewers worked hard to gain the loyalty of local saloonkeepers, who were their primary conduit to consumers:

A[n] effective method of saloon control concerned the buying and selling of saloon fixtures by brewers. The many necessities in setting up a saloon -- the bar, the backbar, tables, chairs, beer-tapping apparatus, and a myriad of other utensils -- represented a large investment for the prospective saloonkeeper. For those unable to secure financing, the startup costs were nothing short of prohibitive. This, of course, is where the brewer came in, offering to supply the necessary fixtures on credit, often on an interest-free basis. The brewer required only that the saloonkeeper agree to sell the brewer's beer, and only his beer, throughout the duration of the debt repayment. Naturally, such arrangements could involve a number of years, thereby securing a long-term captive customer for the brewer.

Peter Ballantine had been brewing beer in New Jersey since the 1830s; his sons joined him in the 1850s, and by the time Michael Mulcahy was serving beer, Ballantine was one of the top 4 breweries in the United States. Its fortunes declined in the the latter part of the 20th century, after being taken over by a success of companies, and Ballantine beers eventually went out of production. However, Pabst recreated a Ballantine IPA several years ago, which should now be available in stores.

In the 1880s, it appears, Michael Mulcahy sold Ballantine beer at his bar at 227 Hamilton. By the 19teens, they also had a bar at 291 Van Brunt. By 1913, they seem to have neither. My earliest information about Michael Mulcahy's bar - which is not uncontested - said that Michael lost the bars after they changed the beer.

In 1900, Michael Mulcahy took out another chattel mortgage;*** this one reads

"Mulcahy, M. 227 Hamilton av . . Nat C R Co. Register  $145"

At first, I thought it might as well have been in Greek, but I eventually decided that I think he took out a $145 mortgage for a cash register from the National Cash Register Company. The National Cash Register Company (now NCR Corporation) was founded in 1884 and went on to become a major name in cash registers. I wonder if I could get an idea of what model if I could find a 1900 catalogue!

A keyword search does not show any relevant entries for Michael Mulcahy at either 291 Van Brunt or 85 Luquer.





*The Record and guide New York, N.Y. : C.W. Sweet, -1887.Electronic reproduction. v.35, no. 877 (Jan. 3, 1885) - v. 36, no. 928 (Dec. 26, 1885), v. 40, no. 1007 (July 2, 1887) - no. 1033 (Dec. 31, 1887). New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries. JPEG use copy available via the World Wide Web. Digitized by the Internet Archive. NNC Electronic reproduction. v. 37, no. 929 (Jan. 2, 1886) - v. 39, no. 998 (June 25, 1887). New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries, 2009. JPEG use copy via the World Wide Web. Digitized from the microfilm by OCLC Preservation Service Center, Bethlehem, Pa. NNC. Columbia University Libraries Electronic Books. 2006. 

**The Record and guide New York, N.Y. : C.W. Sweet, -1887.Electronic reproduction. v.35, no. 877 (Jan. 3, 1885) - v. 36, no. 928 (Dec. 26, 1885), v. 40, no. 1007 (July 2, 1887) - no. 1033 (Dec. 31, 1887). New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries. JPEG use copy available via the World Wide Web. Digitized by the Internet Archive. NNC Electronic reproduction. v. 37, no. 929 (Jan. 2, 1886) - v. 39, no. 998 (June 25, 1887). New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries, 2009. JPEG use copy available via the World Wide Web. Digitized from the microfilm by OCLC Preservation Service Center, Bethlehem, Pa. NNC. Columbia University Libraries Electronic Books. 2006. 

***Real estate record and builders' guide New York, F. W. Dodge Corp. Electronic reproduction. v. 41, no. 1,034 (Jan. 7, 1888) - v. 45, no. 1163 (June 28, 1890), v. 47, no. 1190 (Jan. 3, 1891) - v. 102, no. 2650 (Dec. 28, 1918); v. 103, no. 1 (Jan. 4, 1919) - v. 110, no. 27 (Dec. 30, 1922). New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries, 2010. JPEG use copy available via the World Wide Web. Master copy stored locally on CD#: Digitized by the Internet Archive. NNC Electronic reproduction. v. 46, no. 1164 (July 5, 1890) - no. 1189 (Dec. 27, 1890). New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries, 2009. JPEG use copy available via the World Wide Web. Master copy stored locally on CD#: Digitized from the microfilm by OCLC Preservation Service Center, Bethlehem, Pa. NNC. Columbia University Libraries Electronic Books. 2006. 

Maria D'Ingeo Gatto's C-File and Alien Registration Form

A few years ago, I was inspired by Emily Kowalski Schroeder's post Dominik Kowalski's Certificate of Citizenship on her blog The Spiraling Chains. She described how she had requested her great-grandfather's C-File number from USCIS, and I decided to do the same for my great-grandmother, Maria Stella D'Ingeo Gatto. The whole process took more than 4 months. (Getting around to writing the blog post took another couple of years!)

My great-grandmother immigrated to the U.S. in April 1917, with her father and two of her sisters. They came from Italy, but I'm not currently sure whether the girls were born there. Their Italian parents had immigrated to Brazil sometime after 1896, but I have no evidence of whether it was before or after their three youngest daughters were born. The main question I had hoped to answer with these records was where Maria was born. Was she born in Italy or Brazil? And if the latter, I wanted to know where in Brazil, so I could attempt to find a record of it.

I first ordered an index search, on December 29, 2013. I received a response in February, indicating that there was both a C-File (Naturalization Certificate File) and a Form AR-2 (Alien Registration Form) existing in relation to my great-grandmother. I requested those records on February 28, 2014. I received the records in response in the middle of May, 2014.

The file consisted of the following:
Petition for Naturalization, dated 1941
Letter to Immigration Officials (with copy), 18 March 1942
Response from Immigration Officials, 17 April, 1942
Certificate of Naturalization, 20 July 1943
Alien Registration Form, (AR-2), 9 September 1943

They did not answer my question - at least not consistently!

According to the 1941 Petition for Naturalization: Maria was born in "Brazil, South America"
According to the 1943 Certificate of Naturalization: her "former nationality" was "Italian"
According to the 1943 Alien Registration: born in "Brazil," "citizen or subject of Brazil"

I personally feel that the weight of the evidence is in Brazil's favor, but for everything I find that says "Brazil" there's something else that says "Italy." I've even wondered if the Italian "former nationality" didn't have to do with where she was born, but who her parents were (did Italy offer citizenship to the foreign-born children of Italian citizens?); where she lived thereafter (in Italy for a time; could the Brazilian-born family members have naturalized?); or whom she married (an Italian citizen, in America; would that have made her Italian from the perspective of US officials, in the same way as an American woman could lose her American citizenship by marrying a foreign man?) But if any of those were the case, why would she claim Brazilian citizenship on the very next document she filled out?