Records of McCay's birth are not extant. He stated in an interview in 1910 that he was born in 1869, and this is the year listed on his grave marker. in life, he told friends he was born September 26, 1871, in Spring Lake, and they published this information in a magazine. Michigan census records from 1870 and 1880 list a Zenas W. , who was born in Canada in 1867, and others have speculated 1866 or 1868 based on evidence on how the censuses were carried out. No Canadian birth record has been found, and a fire in Spring Lake in May 1893 could have destroyed any American birth record he may have had. His obituary in the "New York Herald Tribune" stated, "not even Mr. McCay knew his exact age".