Fact Check: Was edison mexican
“Was edison mexican”
Summary
Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, in 1847 to parents of Dutch and Scottish descent. Investigations and reputable reports confirm he had no Mexican ancestry, despite persistent legends in Mexico.
Sources 60 searched
- Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) | Nature
THOMAS ALVA EDISON was born in the then village of Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847, and died at West Orange, New Jersey, on October 18, 1931, at the age of eighty-four. Many years before Edison's death, Sir Richard Gregory wrote in his “Discovery, or the Spirit and Service of Science”, ...
- Thomas Edison Biography: 1847-1882: Birth to Pearl Street (U.S. National Park Service)
Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847, and moved to Port Huron, Michigan when he was seven. He attended school only briefly and was taught reading and math by his mother. Edison began working at the age of twelve on the local railroad.
- Life of Thomas Alva Edison | Biography | Articles and Essays | Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies | Digital Collections | Library of Congress
When Sam became involved in an unsuccessful insurrection in Ontario in the 1830s, he was forced to flee to the United States and in 1839 they made their home in Milan, Ohio. Thomas Alva Edison was born to Sam and Nancy on February 11, 1847, ...
- LINKS EDISON LINE TO OLD AZTEC KINGS; Mexican Woman Says Inventor's Ancestors Ruled Over Mexico's Buried City. HE IS DUTCH AND SCOTCH Secretary and Biographer Thinks His Middle Name, Alva, Is Cause of Mexican Story. - The New York Times
She adds that during 1916 a number of Americans, including one college professor, visited her home looking for proofs of a family connection. Thomas A. Edison, the electrical wizard, has no Mexican blood in his veins.
- Inquiries into Thomas Alva Edison’s Alleged Mexican Ancestry | Aztlán | University of California Press
Juan Cuitlahuac de Hoyos; Inquiries into Thomas Alva Edison’s Alleged Mexican Ancestry. Aztlán 1 November 1978; 9 (1-2): 151–176.
- San Diego Union and Daily Bee 24 July 1909 — California Digital Newspaper Collection
"That's easy, lust as Edison Is ... today when told of the alleged discovery by a Mexican paper that he was n«j,t a native of Ohio, but was in realltv a Mexican....
- Thomas A. Edison: Was Mexico Home to the Greatest Inventor?
There are many ways that the legend goes, but all of the stories surrounding the idea of Thomas Edison being a Mexican citizen begin in the aforementioned town of Sombrerete. Sombrerete is a town in the northwestern portion of the Mexican state of Zacatecas.
- Thomas Alva Edison
But there is a legend in Mexico that "Tõmas" Alva was born in Lagos de Moreno, then taken to the U.S. as a toddler and adopted into the Edison family. The legend, true or not, testifies, at least, to the international veneration that this most prolific inventor enjoys, even today.
- Was Thomas Edison Really a Mexican? – Mexico Unexplained
At the time of Edison’s rise to fame in the 1870s and 1880s, townsfolk in Sombrerete, Zacatecas claimed to have seen the church and civil records that indicated the birth of a Tomás Alva in Sombrerete. This was the basis for putting the plaque on the house on Hidalgo Street mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the hall of records for the town of Sombrerete was burned to the ground in May of 1911 during the Mexican Revolution and the local parish was also ransacked.
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