I will never be a genealogist, but searching out my ancestors and my husband’s ancestors is quite interesting.
This afternoon I found some really intriguing lists of names in a genealogy publication from the late 1980’s. First I found a list of convicts in the Arkansas State Penitentiary in 1856. The prisoners were listed by name, county, conviction, and time left to serve. Luckily I found no names that sounded like my family.
Then I found this “registration affidavits of alien enemies of Arkansas: 1918.”
There followed a detailed list of Germans, Austrians, and Turks that were living in Arkansas at that time.
There was even a completed affidavit of one of those “alien enemies.” The man had entered the US with his family at the age of six. He was born in Germany in 1878, and he stated that he was always under the impression that he was a US citizen. In 1898 he even volunteered to serve as private in the Spanish-American War in Company L, 2nd Arkansas May 1898 - February 1899. Now he was being questioned if he had any male relatives who were “in arms” for or against the United States and its allies in the present war.
Have we changed very much in 100 years? ☹️ Evidently not.
Linda
2 comments:
My mother had the very German maiden name of Rolf, in Cleveland, Ohio, during the war. She said, as an adult, popular opinion could have come down hard on her father, except he was known and liked. His profession was watch maker and during the depression he repaired alarm clocks for 25 cents or less, because men had to get up and go looking for work every day.
I can only imagine what it was like to live with that kind of fear during a time of world war (for Americans and the immigrants who settled here). Divisiveness and fear brings out the worst in people.
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