Richard "Dick" J. McDonald (
February 16,
1909 –
July 14,
1998) and
Maurice "Mac" McDonald (
November 26,
1902 –
December 11,
1971) were two early
American fast food pioneers, originally from
Manchester,
New Hampshire, who established the first
McDonald's restaurant in
San Bernardino, California in 1940.
The McDonald family were of Irish origin. In the 1910 U.S. Census, both brothers (Maurice as "Morris") appear in Manchester ward 8, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, and their father Patrick J. McDonald is shown as originating from Ireland, having emigrated in 1877 as a baby. Their mother Margarete is also shown as Irish born, emigrating to the USA in 1884 as a child. The couple were earlier recorded on the 1900 US Federal Census in Rockingham County, New Hampshire. Patrick McDonald appears on the 1880 Census in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, aged seven, son of Michael and Mary McDonald, both born in Ireland in the 1840s, of Irish-born parents.
This has come under scrutiny with recent genealogy showing that the family apparently originated from Glencoe, Scotland. This was brought to light when McDonald's refused to put menus in Scottish Gaelic, and local people argued this was the McDonald ancestral home and not putting menus in Gaelic was an insult to the brothers' heritage. However, the McDonald brothers have a proven Irish genealogy.[citation needed]
In 1945 The Second World War ended, Dick and Mac had a problem. McDonalds was big. All the veterans had come back from Europe and they were hungry.
