The Expatriation of Ancilla

During a 15-year period in the early 20th century, American women who married foreign-born men lost their U.S. citizenship and legally acquired the nationality of their immigrant spouse.

On May 30, 1909, my great-grandmother Ancilla, born and raised in Denver, Colorado, married Italian immigrant Carmine.

As they exchanged their vows at the altar of Denver's Mount Carmel Church, Ancilla's U.S. citizenship was stripped from her by the Expatriation Act of 1907 and she became a de facto Italian citizen, despite never having set foot in Italy.

Carmine and Ancilla wedding photo

The Expatriation Act of 1907

In a recent article published in the NGS Magazine, professional genealogist Rich Venezia noted that the Expatriation Act "...was fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment and a desire to prevent dual citizenship." Between 1907 and 1922, the legislation resulted in American women forfeiting "...their American citizenship simply by marrying unnaturalized immigrants."

The law was challenged in 1915 and was heard by the Supreme Court, which upheld its legality. It wasn't until 1922 that provisions were first made to change the law's perspective on these women's citizenship status. Subsequent legal amendments in the ensuing years - particularly in 1936 - outlined a path for these women to reacquire their American citizenship by taking an oath of allegiance.

An American Repatriated

On August 5, 1941, Ancilla completed government form N-415, an Application to Take Oath of Allegiance to the United States Under Act of June 25, 1936, and applied "...to take the oath of renunciation and allegiance as prescribed in Section 335 (b) of the Nationality Act of 1940 (54 Stat. 1157) to become repatriated and obtain the rights of a citizen of the United States."

In section eight, she stated, "I lost, or believe that I lost, United States citizenship solely by reason of my marriage on May 30, 1909 to Carmine then an alien, a citizen or subject of Italy..."

She reassured the court that, "I have resided continuously in the United States since the date of my marriage..." However, she didn't list her marriage date in the space provided on the form. Instead, she provided her birth date - May 27, 1893. Ancilla was, I believe, indicating that she had never traveled overseas and had been a U.S. resident her entire life. It underscored the ridiculousness of the absurd legislation that stripped her of her citizenship and forcibly made her the subject of a country she had never visited.

On October 20, 1941, Ancilla took the official Oath of Renunciation and Allegiance, declaring, on oath, that she "absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen..."

On her oath, she regained what had been forcibly taken from her.

Thirty-two years after her marriage, at the age of 48, this peculiar chapter in Ancilla's life came to an end. She was once again recognized by her home country as a citizen with all of the associated legal rights. With Mussolini's fascist Italy on the rise, it was, perhaps, a timely move on her part and quite fortuitous with the United States hurtling towards World War II.   

A Hint Uncovers WWI Military Foreign Deployment

I first learned of my great-grandfather Samuel Kirk's service with the U.S. Army during World War I when I visited his grave in 2016 and saw his government-issued headstone. It was literally carved in stone [see Finding WWI Military Service Despite National Archives Fire].

The author at Samuel Kirk's headstone, denoting his service during WWI

An article in the Colorado Transcript, a local newspaper for Golden, Colorado, publicly announced that Samuel - along with other drafted men - had been medically cleared for service in February 1918, and the Denver Public Library found him on a list of soldiers from Colorado that linked his service with the Motor Transport Corps.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs
Division, WWI Posters, Public Domain

On Memorial Day in 2016, I received a package of photos from a Kirk cousin that shed further light on Samuel's military service. The four pictures confirmed that he had been stationed in San Francisco, California.

Sadly, a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, destroyed between 16 and 18 million military personnel files, including Samuel's service records.

My request to the National Archives for his service file was returned with an ask to me to help them rebuild his file with what little information I knew. But that was it. That was everything I knew.

Until this week.

Turning Over a New Research Leaf

The research trail - once gone cold - reignited when a new shaky leaf hint popped up for Samuel on Ancestry.com. To my surprise and relief, it wasn't a user added photo of a strand of DNA or circuitous clue back to my own tree. This was something useful that would advance my research and understanding of his military service.

Samuel was enumerated on a list of men sailing from New York City to Liverpool, England. Sailing on the S.S. Anchises, the men boarded the ship on August 31, 1918 at Pier 58 North River in New York, NY.

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy,
The New York Public Library. "Pier 58, North River. View from Street"
The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1951.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/a44288b4-9c1d-b31f-e040-e00a18060314

At 8:00 am on September 1, 1918, the ship departed New York and crossed the Atlantic in twelve days, arriving in Liverpool on September 13th.

S.S. Anchises, Wreck Site

Samuel was headed overseas!

Previously I had mistakenly assumed that his service was stateside simply because I had no evidence of foreign deployment. Now I had proof that he was headed to the action in Europe.

Furthermore, the passenger list (pictured below) included important details about Samuel's service, such as his service ID number and his specific unit affiliations. He was a Private First Class with Truck Company E of the Army Artillery Park, Coast Artillery Corps. That information would be helpful in following his service in Europe.

What happened once Samuel arrived in Liverpool? Did he stay in England or transfer to the continent? An answer came on another passenger list.

Seven months after he arrived in Europe, Samuel was enumerated as a passenger on the U.S.S. Canonicus headed for Brooklyn, New York. On April 19, 1919, he departed France from the U.S. Naval Air Station at Pauillac about 30 miles northwest of Bordeaux. 

Ancestry.com. U.S., WWI Troop Transport Ships, 1918-1919 [database on-line].
Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.

From the ashes - Establishing A Military Service Timeline

Despite the fiery destruction of Samuel's service records, the few documents I've scrounged up - including some fantastic online histories and first person recollections for the military company (quoted below) with which he enlisted - helped me piece together a timeline for his military service.

Timeline:

• June 5, 1917: completed WWI draft registration card

• February 14, 1918: Sam passed medical review for draft, published in newspaper

• March 1, 1918: The Army Artillery Park, First Army, American Expeditionary Force was organized at Ft. Winfield Scott in San Francisco and commanded by Colonel William H. Tobin.

• 1918: Pictured in San Francisco area, perhaps during basic training

Samuel Kirk, photographed at the Presidio in San Francisco, California

• August 15, 1918: Truck Company E left San Francisco in a vehicle convoy

• August 21, 1918: Truck Company E arrived in New York City

• August 31, 1918: Boarded the S.S. Anchises at Pier 58 in New York City

• September 1, 1918: Set sail aboard S.S. Anchises

• September 12, 1918: Arrived Liverpool, England

• April ~13, 1919: Truck Company E met up with Park Battery C and Truck Companies D and F, in compliance with orders received to start for the Port of Embarkation.

• April 16, 1919: Companies started for the river docks at 6:45 am. Arriving there, they took a barge for 30-miles down the river, landing at Pauillac. Here they were stationed in a large building, capable of holding 5,000 men.

• April 18, 1919: "To the great surprise of all, saw an order come in that we should board our long-looked-for transport the next day.

• April 19, 1919: "Sure enough, April 19 saw us lining up to await our turn to go aboard. The ship was loaded by 3:00 pm, and by 4:30 we started to pull away from land and out towards the middle of the river. We were on the good ship SS Canonicus, which had a tonnage of 5,500, and was 410-feet long with a 49-foot beam. The southern route of 3,700 miles was taken, and by the next morning land had faded away."

• May 2, 1919: "The trip was uneventful, and May 2nd saw the ship feeling her way into New York harbour through the dense fog. After going through the usual quarantine inspections, we landed at 11:00 am. After a Red Cross dinner at the docks, we boarded the ferry and were taken up East River, under the Brooklyn Bridge, and at a pier in Brooklyn. Camp Mills was reached at 3:00 pm."

• May 1919: "At Camp Mills, we were located in tents, and were allowed passes every two days. We anxiously awaited the day of our demobilization, which at last arrived. The Regulars were the first to depart, leaving on May 10th. That was the start, and from then on, the regiment, composed of men from almost every state in the Union, and from every walk of life, gradually fell to pieces. May 11th saw the Camp Grant detachment on its way, while the largest of all, the California detachment, left on May 12, 1919, with Camp Dodge departing on the 13th. While sorry to part from so many friends, many of whom we would never see again, still we were glad to get home and be free once more-and fulfilling the ambition we had cherished for five and a half months. Thus, came the end of one of Uncle Sam's many organizations, which, having done its duty, went out in the same way as it had come into existence, and with the same spirit of "Come what may, we are ready."

While the two passenger lists provide a great bookend to his foreign deployment, there remains a significant gap regarding what his Truck Company was doing from their arrival in Liverpool in August 1918 until the Armistice on November 11, 1918.

Persisting Questions and Freedom to Ask

I've reached out to the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri to see whether they can provide any further insights about the service of his company. Perhaps they will have details about battles Samuel would have supported.

I've also submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to see what, if any, records they have for Samuel that can be released to me. He spent his final years in a veterans home, so I anticipate there are, at a minimum, medical records.

Have you had experience with FOIA requests to the VA? Were you successful? How long did it take (assuming in a pre-pandemic era)? Fingers crossed there's more to be learned about Samuel's service.

Little Old Cemetery On Our Place

Nestled in the densely forested grounds of the Dawes Arboretum is one of the oldest cemeteries in Licking County, Ohio.

The Beard-Green Cemetery is the final resting place for several of my paternal ancestors.

A historical marker details the backgrounds of the 210-year-old cemetery's namesakes, including Benjamin Green and his family who were the first legal settlers in spring 1800 of the area that would become Licking County in 1808. The marker also indicates that John Beard's family settled in 1808. 

Beard-Green Cemetery historical marker, photo by author

John Beard, who was married to Margaret Kirk, actually settled in the area at least two years prior to 1808. John was enumerated on the 1806 tax list for Fairfield County (the predecessor to Licking County), and purchased 400 acres in Licking Township, Fairfield County in January 1807. That deed indicated that John was "of Fairfield County..." and not just an out-of-towner buying up land.

But quibbles about the accuracy of the historical marker aside, the cemetery is an important place for my family history. 

John and Margaret Beard were, I believe, uncle and aunt to my fifth great-grandfather Thomas Kirk and his likely sister Mary (Kirk) Geiger - both of whom are also buried in the cemetery grounds. I believe John Beard was a father figure - if not legal guardian - for Thomas and Mary following the death of their father Joseph Kirk in Berkeley County, Virginia in about 1784. 

Missing and Deteriorating Headstones

Sadly, the passage of time has not been kind to many of the cemetery's headstones. While John Beard's marker stands prominent and majestically more than 200 years after his 1814 death, others are crumbling with weathered inscriptions or altogether missing.

Gone is the headstone for John's wife, Margaret. Presumably she was laid to rest beside her husband, but which side? There's a crumbled stone embedded in the ground to the right of John's marker (behind the flag in the picture below). However, there's no legible engraving. I've long assumed that was all that remained of Margaret's marker.

John Beard 1814 headstone, photo by author

Among the deteriorating memorials are fragments of the tombstones for my fifth great-grandparents Thomas and Sarah (Bonar) Kirk. Regrettably, the upper portion of their stones - with the invaluable biographical data - is now missing. A caretaker of the cemetery told me that many of the broken stones were buried in the northwest corner of the cemetery. 

In 2017, I worked with other Kirk descendants to lay a new headstone, which was placed between the stumps of their original headstones and commemorated their role as early settlers of Licking County.

Thomas and Sarah Kirk graves, photo by author

An exact date of death

I've long wondered what was engraved on Thomas' original tombstone. Did it provide his exact death date?

A family history published in the 1990's gave his death date as December 3, 1846, but there was no citation for where that date came from. Did it come from the tombstone?

The author of that history had visited Beard-Green and included a grainy photograph of Thomas' original headstone when it was still intact (albeit barely hanging on, clamped together by metal braces). Perhaps the stone was legible and the exact death date was pulled from the marker.

In June 1970, a local genealogy society conducted a census of burials - recording the basic bio-data that was still readable. Thomas' headstone was standing, but the information recorded was pretty basic.

Great, I had the birth and death years. I didn't want to be too greedy, but it sure would be nice to know what exactly was on the stone. Many of the markers in the cemetery give the deceased's name, exact death date and the age at death, which can then be used to calculate the birth year. 

Was that the case for Thomas?

Notes on a cemetery

During a recent visit to the genealogical society in Newark, Ohio, I landed on a new document that provided more insights. 

It was a photocopy of a notebook kept by Bertie Dawes (1872-1958), co-owner and caretaker for the surrounding Dawes grounds on which the cemetery is situated, titled, "Little Old Cemetery on our place."

The journal includes a map of burial locations (Margaret Beard was buried to the left of her husband!) and an index detailing the known burials in 1940. It also provides more of the information inscribed on each stone, including for Thomas.

In a handwritten list of burials ordered chronologically by year, Dawes recorded Thomas Kirk under 1846.

There it was in black and white. Thomas Kirk's tombstone gave his death date as December 3, 1846 at the age of 68 years, which suggested a birth year of 1778. 

This was the first time I had confirmation that the stone was the source of this information.

Although the data wasn't entirely new, Dawes' notebook provided a reference point, a citation that I could point to as corroborating evidence of Thomas' birth and death dates. That's important in any genealogy and strengthens my Kirk family history.