The Real Paul Winchell

Paul Herbert Winchell, 1881-1961

When I was small, people would ask me if I were related to the show business personality Paul Winchell or journalist Walter Winchell.  I didn’t know so I said no.  Now I can definitely say I am not related to either man because they were not truly Winchells.

According to the biography on PaulWinchell.net, entertainer Paul Winchell was born Paul Wilchinsky in New York City to Solomon Wilchinsky and Clara Fuchs.  His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Austria-Hungary. Below is a portion of the 1940 census showing a young Paul Wilchinsky living with his parents in Los Angeles. 

Entertainer Paul "Winchell"

 

Walter Winchell was born Walter Weinschel, the son of Jacob and Jennie Weinschel, both of whom came from Poland.  He just happened to be Jewish, too.  Below is a portion of the 1905 showing an 8-year-old Walter Weinschel living with his parents in Manhattan.  The birthplace for both parents is "Russia Polad."  It appears the enumerator had trouble spelling "Poland" correctly.

Journalist Walter "Winchell"

On the other hand, I have a copy of the birth record for my great-uncle Paul Herbert Winchell who was born 26 August 1881, the son of Henry Franklin Winchell and Cora Leona Thatcher.  At the time they were living in Waterbury, CT, where Henry was working as a carpenter.  The record says both parents were born in the Town of Great Barrington.

I have researched my Winchell family back to Robert Winchell, whom researchers agree came from Great Britain.  He was living in Dorchester, Mass., by 1634.  He was one of the original settlers of Windsor, Conn., where on 25 Dec 1640 he received a home lot.  I believe the surname Winchell is Anglo-Saxon, having roots in the Germanic language of the ancient invaders of England, and it seems to be the only thing my Winchell family has in common with the "famous Winchells."  

I had often heard about my great-uncle Paul, most likely because he lived in the same county as family, but I knew very little about him until I started researching my family.  On 1 June 1900 he lived in Shelton, Fairfield Co., Conn, and worked as a cotton spinner at age 18.  He met and married Clara May Shufelt 4 June 1905 in Chatham, Columbia Co., N.Y.  Here is a photo of the couple later in life.

By 1910 the couple were living with Clara's father George.  The marriage announcement said he lived on Spring Street.  That's the street I found the couple living later in Chatham.  It's possible they inherited the house from her father.  Here's a photo of their house in Chatham.  

On 12 September 1918, Paul registered for the World War I draft.  The document indicated he  was short and stout with brown hair and eyes.

Paul worked for well known local companies, the Chatham Shirt Company and Columbia Boxboard Mills.  He was an active member of the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Chatham.  

Paul died 11 January 1961.  His wife followed him in death on 17 September 1961.  They are both buried in the Mellenville Union Cemetery.  Somehow my family completely missed the fact that he died.  I never knew that they both died two years after I was born and I passed their burial sites innumerable times in my life.  

That is what I know of a true Paul Winchell.  There may be others.  Searching for them in newspapers can be very difficult because there are usually too many returns for Paul "Winchell" and Walter "Winchell."  This family still needs a true member to make his or her mark in this country.

I am extremely grateful to my Schwab cousins for sharing the photos with me.

Ancestry Needs to Improve Search

Instead of spending money on making the different screens look better, Ancestry.com needs to spend money on improving its search engine.  I wanted to find the newspaper article on Frederick A. Snyder's death.  I went to the exact newspaper that I wanted, the Berkshire Eagle.  I used the Advanced Search screen to enter his name and the exact date of 25 Oct 1948 and name of the publication.  I received over 4200 search results, many from any year but 1948 and many other Warners besides the Fredericks.  At this rate it will be easier for me to get in my car and drive an hour to the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield, Mass., to look up the article on microfilm in their local history room than to find the article on Ancestry.  

 The search engine also has difficulty returning results on a phrase.  I received as many misjointed results as I did with full names.  For instance the result might be Frederick Chase on one line and Gary Warner on another, instead of Frederick Snyder all together in one line of type.

If Ancestry wants to maintain and increase its membership, I very strongly advise it to improve its search engine.

I was very happy to see there was a link to a survey at the top of the screen at one point asking my views on the search screen and the results. You can be assured I told the company what it needed to do.

Family History Learning and Sharing

I find that using Ancestry.com upsets me. My mother lost touch with her relatives in Indiana.  My paternal family lost touch with our relatives in Ohio and Michigan.  I grew up unassociated with most of my relatives through no fault of my own.  Mine's been a fairly lonely life.  On Ancestry I see all these people who are researching the same people yet don't seem to want to connect with their own relatives. Just before Mother's Day I went through a spate of writing to her relatives hoping to reconnect with someone to no avail.  I can't help but wonder why people don't want to know me.  On Ancestry we can't be complete strangers because we can see our relationships.  Even when they're kept private, it's easy to deduce that's where the connection is.

I never thought the sole aim of family history research, otherwise known as genealogy, was gathering information about dead ancestors.  For me it is also a way to learn not only what happened to my family in the past, but to find out why my family is the way it is and to find out what happened to the rest of it.  As for wanting to connect with living relatives, what could be more natural?  Human beings are social.  We are not meant to grow up and live alone.  As we can see, when we are too separate, individuals and society suffer.

I fear that the popularity of scandalous and bad news in the media and the plethora of who-killed-whom-with-what-this-time shows and movies have made people much more suspicious of strangers and some downright paranoid.  I can understand a certain amount of caution in the Internet Age, but too much is not a healthy way to live.

With my families, there is also the additional element that all grandparents were mixed European and Native.  I have had cousins drop contact because I brought that topic up. It's really time to accept facts and let go of any racist feelings.  There are people from many races living on North America.  There are people of many religions living on North America.  There are good people and bad people in each and every group so pointing fingers at another is not valid.  We are all here and we need to learn how to live peacefully together to heal the people and the land.

Mystery Man

Several years ago I found this photo in a Coxsackie, New York, antique store and bought it because the man looked so much like my relatives.  Indeed, he also resembles someone in another photo I bought because of family resemblance:

This is what happens when your grandfather in a depressed state of mind burns all the known family photos.  You start collecting photos from antique stores that look like your family.  This is a large portrait I bought in a Slingerlands, New York, store because she looked so much like my paternal grandfather Earl Winchell:

I remember my boss let me take a long lunch to go back and buy the portrait, and even to use the company camera to take a photo of it.  

My Winchell family lived in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. When I bought the portrait I didn't know that the Rev. William Henry Winchell, my great-grandfather's nephew, moved to New York State and most of his family lived in the state.  I didn't know that Guy Warner, my great-grandfather's cousin, and his wife Cora Griswold moved to Orange County, New York, by 1910.

Earl Winchell and daughter-in-law Catherine Collier Winchell

 I think the resemblance is uncanny, myself, I don't think I'm too off the mark to think that the woman in the portrait is someone from my family, and she could very well be Winifred Olivia Ashley, Earl's grandmother.

The girl in the photo I could trace back to Great Barrington around 1878.  She could be Ada Winchell, Earl's aunt who died unmarried of consumption at age 23.  

The man in the first photo?  I have no idea.  There are too many possibilities.  He is too young to be my great-uncle Paul Herbert Winchell of Chatham, NY.  He could be a descendant of the Rev. William Henry Winchell, or Guy Warner.  Maybe someone will be able to tell me someday.

There is a moral to this post:  please, people, always identify the people in your photos.  Someday someone will want to know.

Native American Professional Associations Show Participation in Modern Society

Part 24 of the series Are Native Americans Relevant?

• American Indian Chamber of Commerce
• American Indian Library Association
• American Indian Science and Engineering Society
• Association of Native American Medical Students
• Association of Native American Physicians
• Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT)
• Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)
• Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals
• Intertribal Agriculture Council
• National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development
• National Coalition of American Athletes
• National Indian Education Association
• National Native American Bar Association
• National Native American Human Resources Association
• National Native American Law Enforcement Association (NNALEA)
• National Tribal Environmental Council
• Native American Art Studies Association
• Native American Business Alliance
• Native American Fish and Wildlife Society
• Native American Intellectual Property Enterprise Council
• Native American Journalists Association
• Native American Lawyers Association
• Native American Manufacturer’s Network
• Native American/Corporate America Business
• Native Finance Officers Association
• Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science
• Society of American Indian Dentists

Native American Engineer Essential to Web Technology

Part 23 of the series Are Native Americans Relevant?

T. David Petite is a member of the Fund du Lac Chippewa Tribe and the founder of the Native American Intellectual Property Enterprise Council.  He is the key inventor of wireless ad hoc networks, and the creator of smart cloud technology and the Essential Wireless Mesh™ (EWM™) Patent Portfolio.  We could not have the access to the web the way we do without thi technology.  Petite is a highly recognized inventor in the worldwide energy and communications community with over 40 U.S. issued patents to his name.  Mr. Petite’s technology is also being currently used in soil management, home appliances (such as washers and dryers), industrial plant monitoring, building automation, and medical asset management.