As I posted yesterday, my grandmother, Ida Maria Huskonen, was required to register as an alien during WWII. As it turned out, she was one of more than 4.7 million people living in America who registered as aliens. In my grandmother’s case, I’m sure that my father, Walfrid, took Grandma to Jefferson, the Ashtabula County seat, for her original registration on 21 Sep 1940 to fill out a two-page Alien Registration Form. The Form is filled out with a typewriter and signed by Carrie Knapp, registering official.
In yesterday’s post, I outlined the process I followed to obtain her alien file (A file) from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency (https://www.uscis.gov/). It yielded a photostatic copy of the filled-in Alien Registration Form (see below), plus one copy of an Address Report Card dated 24 Jan 1951 (also below). Apparently, Grandma had to report her address every year until 1951. The handwriting on this card suggests to me that it was filled out by my father (at least it looks like other handwriting samples I have from him). Since only one card remained in her file, I assume that as she submitted new card, the previous year’s card was discarded. Also interesting is that the back of the card is stamped with Andover, O, which probably indicates that it was turned in at the post office in Andover.
Both documents included her registration number: 1994788, which probably was assigned to her when she filled out the Alien Registration Form in Jefferson.
I was struck by the fact that the typewritten name on the Form was Ida Maria Huskonen, but she signed her name very clearly as Ida Mari Huskonen. The spelling of Mari apparently is the more traditional Finnish spelling for Maria (see http://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/finnish).
Most of the information requested (required) by the Alien Registration Form I already knew before obtaining Grandma’s file, including such data as her birth date and birthplace in Finland, the date she arrived in American, and the ship she arrived on.
Because of her role as housewife in 1940, many of the questions didn’t yield anything new and or interesting, but for other registrants, occupation and employer data would be valuable. Other lines of questioning involved activities over the previous five years (clubs and other organizations), military service, citizenship applications, and criminal records, For most of these, she answered “none.” She did provide answers for how many relatives were living in America (husband and 6 children).
Images of the Form (front and back) and the Address Report Card are provided below:
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