52 Ancestors Challenge Week 4: Overlooked - Abe's Naturalization Papers

This year I have challenged myself to write brief biographies on 30 of my direct ancestors; my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and great-great grandparents. In doing so it forces me to revisit my research on each of them, and the members of their extended family, their siblings, and those siblings' spouses, etc. Undoubtedly, this results in me reexamining records and looking at new Ancestry hints. Newly digitized records are being added to databases all the time. I can't always keep up with all the hints. I try to keep on top of the hints for my direct ancestors though, but those extended family members, well, it's a lot. In this process of writing, I am uncovering a lot of details that I overlooked. In some instances my discoveries have prompted me to order records I haven't seen. Such was the case for my great grandfather, Abram Thomas Earle (January 13, 1891 - November 18, 1973).

Abe passed before I was born. I had heard many stories about him from my dad and grandparents, though. From them I knew Abe had immigrated to the U.S. from what is now Newfoundland, Canada. At the time of his immigration Newfoundland was a British dominion. 

I have traveled to the town he grew up in, Twillingate. I can tell you the exact date I first visited there but I didn't know the exact date Abe arrived in the U.S., until now.

I knew he was here by 1915 when he married Ethel Mae Losee on June 5, 1915 in Freeport, Long Island, New York. I knew he came to the U.S. after his mother died. His mother Sarah Samms-Earle-Bromley died on March 20, 1899 of consumption, what we call tuberculosis, when Abe was just 8 years old. Then an orphan, I really don't know what Abe's life was like between his mother's death in 1899 and his marriage in 1915. I knew he had older sisters and there was this notion that those ladies took care of him, but it was all vague as to when, where, and who exactly. The dynamics of the family are lost to me, except for what I can glean from records.

In an effort to clarify details about his life and that of his sister, specifically his sister Susie, I order their naturalization papers. The papers included many of the details I was hoping for.

Abe naturalized on January 10, 1925 in the Supreme Court of Nassau County, New York. We just passed the 100th anniversary of his naturalization. His Declaration of Intent, filed on September 26, 1917, states that he worked in monotype (a printer), he was white with a fair complexion, 5'5", 142 pounds, brown haired, and blue eyed. At the time of the application he was living with his wife, Ethel, in Roosevelt, New York, a town adjacent to Freeport. All of which I knew based on other resources and family. But then it told me this: Abe emigrated to the United States from Twillingate by way of Sydney, Nova Scotia on or about May 31, 1903 via railroad to Boston, Massachusetts.

The Boston part I had suspected because I saw his sister, Susie, in the 1910 census living in Boston. Abe wasn't listed on that census but stories told of Susie taking care of Abe, maybe he was there in 1910. He was there in '03. 

It was the railroad part that got me. Train? I didn't see that coming. The Earles are a nautical people. Abe's father died at sea, as did his maternal grandfather. I incorrectly assumed Abe must have come by ship into Boston or Ellis Island. Nope. Train.

I have been to Nova Scotia. I haven't been to Sydney. The closest I got was probably St. Ann's, Nova Scotia back in 2017 while driving from Baddeck to Ingonish Beach. I stayed there a night before driving through Cape Breton Highlands National Park. St. Ann's is about a 37.6 miles (60 kilometers) west of Sydney. Nova Scotia is beautiful, as is Newfoundland.

I wonder what Abe thought of Boston and who took care of him there. He was only 12. Did he travel alone? Where was he living when he was back in Twillingate before his departure? When did he get to New York? I still don't have the clearest picture of his life between 1899 and 1915 but I do have a new bullet on the time line:

May 31, 1903 - emigrated from Newfoundland to Boston by way of Sydney, Nova Scotia via train.

Ethel's Citizenship

There was a period in U.S. history that if a natural born U.S. woman married a foreign man, she lost her U.S. citizenship. 

It's true!

Starting on March 2, 1907, an American woman, by birth or naturalization, lost her citizenship when she married an alien. She thereby took on his nationality. She could regain her U.S. citizenship if and when her husband naturalized. His naturalization required a total of 5 years residency in the U.S. including 1 year of residency in the state of application and 2 years between his declaration of intent to naturalize and the submission of his naturalization petition.

On September 22, 1922 the Cable Act was passed. This Act made it so that women could no longer be naturalized through derivative citizenship; meaning that she herself had to apply for her own citizenship. She didn't just get it automatically when her alien husband naturalized. 

It also made it so women no longer lost their U.S. citizenship just because she married an alien. However, the women who had previously lost their citizenship due to marrying an alien were only made eligible to naturalized. They didn't just get it back. They had to go through the process of applying for citizenship.

On June 25, 1936, it changed again so that women who were native born U.S. citizens that lost their citizenship due to marriage an foreign man prior to September 22, 1922 could be considered a citizen again if she took the oath of allegiance AND her marriage was terminated by either death or divorce of her spouse. So in other words, she could be come a citizen on her own as long as that guy wasn't her husband anymore.

It wasn't until July 2, 1940 that those women who lost their citizenship through marriage between 1907 and 1922 could be considered a citizen again. She still had to take the oath of allegiance, but it didn't matter if her husband was dead or alive anymore, she could do it on her own. The one caveat being that she had to resided in U.S. for the duration of the marriage.

So that brings me to my great grandmother, Ethel Mae Losee-Earle. Ethel was born on St. Valentine's Day, 1896 in Freeport, Long Island, New York, where 8 previous generations had all been born after her 7th great grandfather, Edward Raynor settled the area in the mid 1600s.

By all accounts, Ethel never left Long Island. Maybe she ventured into Manhattan or up to New England for some excursion but she never traveled abroad. 

On June 5, 1915, she married Abram Thomas Earle in Freeport. Abram was born in Twillingate, Newfoundland which at the time of his birth was a British colony. Newfoundland only became a province of Canada on March 31, 1949. So when Ethel married Abe, she too became a British citizen. She had never been there. Never planned to even visit. Yet, she was no longer an American.

Now maybe in 1915 that didn't seem like a big deal but I wonder how she felt in 1920 when American women were finally able to vote and she couldn't.

Until very recently I had no reason to believe Abe had ever naturalized. I believed wholeheartedly that he had died a British citizen. Although, I don't know what becomes of your citizenship status when your place of birth changes its status like Newfoundland did by joining Canada in 1949. When Abe died in 1973 would he have been considered British or Canadian?

Ugh, well I don't have to answer that because, lookie here:

Abe naturalized on January 10, 1925, before my grandfather Ed was born in August of that year.

And guess what - - So did Ethel.

I was so happy to see her Certificate of Naturalization. I find the whole business of one loosing her citizenship so shameful. As if marrying someone outside of your national origin is a sign of disloyalty to your nation.

Love is love, people.

My Top 5 Favorite Dead People

It may seem strange to say this but I really have bonded with some of my dead people. I never knew them and yet I feel them close to me; not in a spooky, I-see-dead-people kind of way but close to me. While researching some of their lives, they have lead me to some amazing discoveries; while others have plagued me with a lack of documentation.

Today I share with you my top 5 fav dead people, in no particular order. Most of them I have written about before in this blog. I will link to more detailed stories about them when possible. In this post, though, I will, to the best of my ability, explain how they came to be my favorite:

5. Jacob Raynor (born ??? - died 1829. Long Island, NY)

I grouse about this guy extensively. He is not just my genealogical nemesis, he is also my 6th great-grandfather; the stonewall of my Raynor line. My inability to find anything definitive about his parentage drives me nuts. I am constantly trying to chip away at this Teflon-Don to no avail. BUT, he is how I met so many of my researching cousins include the often mentioned, Cousin Mary whom I just adore. I talk shit about Jacob but secretly, shhhhhh, I love him.

4. Damase Desjardins (born October 1850, Montreal, Quebec, Canada - died October 9, 1911, Patchoque, Long Island, NY)

Oh Damase, you excessive procreator you! Damase is my great-great grandfather on my mother's paternal line. He fathered 11 children; 1 with his first wife Victorine Desjardins-Desjardins and 10 with his second wife, Malvina Ethier-Desjardins.

I love Malvina too. She lived through such trying circumstances; losing her husband, a child, and a grandchild all in the same year. It was her naturalization papers which startled me by providing me a photograph of her; my grandpa looked so much like her.

But it was researching Damase's life that first required me to learn a little French, encouraged me to visit Montreal and the outlying town of Mascouche, Quebec, and helped me to understand the persistent experience of estrangement that remains within this family line. Damase also had a great obituary that explained the family name change from Desjardins to Gardner.

3. Isabelle Nancy McLean-Williams-Evans (born 1871 - died May 24, 1922, Lowell, Massachusetts)

Aunt Belle. It was a medium who told me I'd research this woman which is probably the strangest of all my genealogy research stories. Aunt Belle was my great-great grandmother's younger sister. She moved from Canada to Lowell, Massachusetts prior to WWI. When her niece, my great grandmother Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" Sharp-Gardner, moved to the U.S. with her brother Daniel Sharp, it was Aunt Belle whom they went to live with.

As I tell many a researching-cousin, some relatives want to be found and other do not. Unlike Jacob Raynor above I believe Aunt Belle just wanted to be found and so I celebrate her.

2. Ambrose Weeks (born June, 1819 - died May 3, 1900, Hempstead, Long Island, NY)

I just recently wrote about Ambrose. First off I just love his name, Ambrose. He was the brother-in-law of my 4th great-grandmother, Lydia Smith-Losee. He was married to Lydia's sister, Elizabeth Smith-Weeks. Lydia and Elizabeth were daughters of Jacob Raynor mentioned above. Ambrose is a distant relationship to me but still one of great interest. He is a sad, tragic figure who breaks my heart every time I read about him in the various newspaper articles I have found about his life. 

1. Benjamin Franklin Losee (about 1844, Freeport, Long Island, NY - died Fall or Winter, 1865, Point of Rocks, VA)

My beloved Civil War soldier, Ben. Oh how I cherish this man. His story is one so steeped in American history; just a poor, young boy who went off to fight for his country but really to financially support his family. He died in the hospital tents of typhus at much too young an age.

He was one of the very first names I stumbled across and his existence is what really pushed me into research my family history. I have used his story and pension file to speak to classrooms of children about the Civil War, family history, and primary resources. At times I have felt his spirit soldiering me on (pardon the pun) to continue my research. And for this, the greatest genealogical kindness I have ever given to my ancestors was to Ben; I had his military issued tombstone replaced with one bearing a correct spelling of his last name.

Naturalization Papers Surprise!

For the last few days I have been writing about my mother's paternal line, the Desjardins/Gardner Family of Montreal, Quebec, Canada / Astoria, Queens County, New York / Patchogue, Long Island, New York.

On my father's line, a lot of my research was handed to me by various researching cousins. Oh, don't worry, I verify everything that is given to me with documentation and my own research. My mother's line, though, I have done almost all my discoveries on my own. No one has really taken me by the hand and pointed me in the right direction or handed me family trees until very recently. It is only within the last 3 years or so that I have found other researching cousins on my mother's side. Everything up until my 3rd great grandparents I found with very little help or guidance. I had just a few notes to work with from Grandpa Gardner and that was all. Unfortunately, Grandma Gardner passed away before I was born. To reach my 4th, 5th, 6th, and further generations of great grandparents, I did have to connect with researching cousins; they are the greatest resource I have! But at least in the case of Malvina Ethier-Desjardins, my great-great grandmother, everything I know I learned on my own.

The greatest document I have about her life her naturalization papers. For years and years I scoured the various New York District Court Records - - found nothing! And then I learned that Suffolk County's Naturalization Index was available online: Suffolk County Naturalization through the Italian Genealogy Group. Suffolk County is Long Island, New York's eastern most county and the one in which Patchogue is situated. That is where Malvina lived for the latter part of her life. And sure enough, that is where I found her naturalization papers.

It resolved one big mystery; Malvina did not arrive through Ellis Island, like so many newcomers to New York, Malvina came from Montreal via RAILROAD! Her port of immigration was Grand Central Station! Not only does the document reveal this, it list her date of birth, her address, her date of arrival in the U.S., and all of her natural-born U.S. citizen children's dates of birth and residencies, the document includes a photo. A photo! I had never seen a photo of any of my grandfather's relatives - none. And here on these documents from 1938 was a picture of my great-great grandma. 
 

Doesn't she look a lot like my grandpa?
They are each about 75 years old in these photos.

 

 Malvina Ethier-Desjardins circa 1938

Her grandson, my grandfather, Clarence Albert Gardner, circa 2003