He was supposedly orphaned around age 4 and adopted by his adoptive mother. But does anyone know the name or history of the parents of Joe Gans?
Her name was Gant, but people pronounced it wrong (don’t ask me how? But that is the story) so he changed it to Gans.
I think at least one of his parents was from one of the British colonies around the Caribbean. I’ve got a couple of books on Gans and I think one said as much. His birth name was Gant if I am not mistaken. I’ll have a look when I get home.
Have established his dad was a baseball player but I can't find any data on him and nothing on his biological mother either. Surely there must be some sort of ancestry database or information about them?
I could have sworn it was a biological parent that was of British colony origin. He looked a little West Indian.
Oh I don’t know that it was not...I really don’t recall much if anything about his birth mother. Sounds like his dad gave him up for adoption or to foster care. It has been a few years since I read his biography (I don’t recall it there either), this was just a 15 minute cursory search, as I am not in research mode at the minute.
