Rasmus? No, Robert.

One of my immigrant ancestors, my great-great grandfather, Rasmus Pedersen, was born on May 22, 1852, in Frejlev, a tiny village on the island of Lolland, Denmark. His father, Peder Olsen, was a blacksmith. Rasmus and his brothers were also trained to be blacksmiths. Starting with brother Hans in 1879, the entire family migrated to the United States by 1882, most of them settling near Waupaca, Wisconsin.

Rasmus married Karen Pedersen in April 1880 and they arrived in Racine, Wisconsin in time to be recorded in the 1880 US Census for that place. While living in Racine from 1880 to 1883, Rasmus worked as a blacksmith and the couple welcomed two daughters – Gertrude and Marie. Shortly after Marie's birth, the couple joined many other Danish immigrants, settling in Howard County, Nebraska. They helped establish the new village of Nysted, not far from the town of Dannebrog.

It was about this time that Rasmus adopted the more American-sounding name of Robert Petersen. He is recorded in the 1885 state census of Nebraska under that name, and he used it for the rest of his life.

The reason for this post is that I recently learned of another family member – also a descendant of my Danish blacksmith ancestor – who made the same name choice.

Robert and Karen's daughter, Marie, married C.A. Christensen in 1904. The eldest of their nine children was born in 1906 and named Oswald. Official documents record his name as Oswald Robert Christensen. However, at a recent family reunion, a member of his immediate family informed me that he was named Oswald Rasmus by his parents, and that he also chose to use Robert instead. We don't really know when or why he decided to make the change. Perhaps it was around the time of World War One, when many immigrants and children of immigrants preferred not to have "foreign" names. That is speculation on my part, however. "Uncle Os" was the eldest brother of my maternal grandfather, Clifford "Kip" Christensen.

Want to learn more?

• A biographical profile of Rasmus Pedersen (1852-1939) on Wikitree.com

• Danish island of Lolland article on Wikipedia.com

• Danish naming customs article on Familysearch.org

• Danish immigration article from the Museum of Danish America

• Dannebrog, Nebraska history article from the Nebraska Historical Society

Marie (Petersen) Christensen – United States Citizen or Not?

 

Marie (Petersen) and Christian A (C.A.) Christensen about the time of their marriage in 1904.

The United States is a "Nation of Immigrants," in a phrase popularized by a 1958 book written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy. From colonial times until now, waves of people have come to this land seeking to make a better life for themselves and their families. It must be acknowledged that these waves dispossessed the Native peoples who had lived in North America for thousands of years, and that hundreds of thousands of others were brought here against their wills to be enslaved.

Many Americans celebrate their immigrant ancestries and honor the contributions their forebears have made to building the country in which we live. The ugly side of the story is that each wave of immigrants were met with prejudice, stereotypes, and discriminatory laws and social treatment.

According to the editors of History.com

"Between 1880 and 1920, a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization, America received more than 20 million immigrants....The peak year for admission of new immigrants was 1907, when approximately 1.3 million people entered the country legally."

My great-grandparents, Marie (Petersen) Christensen, and her husband, Christian Andrew (C.A.) Christensen were part of this wave and found themselves caught up in the backlash.

Marie was born in Racine, Wisconsin, on 27 February 1883, to Danish immigrants Robert and Karen Petersen. Marie was granted citizenship by birthright, a privilege extended by the 14^th Amendment to all people born in the United States or its territories. C.A. Christensen was born in Denmark in 1881 and came as a child in 1888 to Wisconsin with his parents, Jens and Caroline. He would remain a Danish citizen until such time as he would complete the Naturalization process.

It is unlikely that Marie and C.A. gave much thought to the citizenship implications of their marriage in January 1904. I believe they were more focused on where they would live and how they would support the family they hoped to build together.

Although it may seem surprising today, there was a time in the United States when the citizenship of a married woman was tied to the citizenship of her husband. This principle was embodied in federal law when the U.S. Congress passed the Expatriation Act of 1907, which stated that "any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband."

According to Meg Hacker, of the U.S. National Archives:

If an American woman married a foreigner before 1907 and the married couple continued to reside in the United States, she did not, because of her marriage, cease to be an American citizen. The American woman remained a U.S. citizen even after her marriage to a non-U.S. citizen.

Even though Marie and C.A. were married in 1904, they apparently believed that she had lost her citizenship by marrying a Danish citizen. They must have been relieved when Congress passed the Cable Act of 1922 (approved 22 September 1922, it was also known as the Married Women's Citizenship Act or the Women's Citizenship Act). Both Marie and C.A. petitioned to become naturalized American citizens – in Marie's case, she petitioned to have her birthright citizenship restored – in August 1924.

The section of Marie's petition form where she was to declare her intention to become a citizen of the United States was crossed out...

and covered by the following typescript statement:

Marie's United States Citizenship was restored on 27 February 1925. Here is her Certificate of Naturalization:

C.A. was granted citizenship in February 1925 at the same time as Marie, but that's another story...

 Sources:

"Cable Act of 1922", Immigration History, a project of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society (2019); web page (https://immigrationhistory.org/item/cable-act/ : Accessed 30 May 2022).

Hacker, Meg, "When Saying "I Do" Meant Giving Up Your U.S. Citizenship", Prologue (Spring 2014), U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland; digital article (https://www.archives.gov/files/publications/prologue/2014/spring/citizenship.pdf : Accessed 29 May 2022).

History.com editors, "U.S. Immigration Before 1965", History, A&E Television Networks (10 September 2021);digital article (https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/u-s-immigration-before-1965 : Accessed 29 May 2022).

"Expatriation Act of 1907", Immigration History, a project of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society (2019); web page (https://immigrationhistory.org/item/an-act-in-reference-to-the-expatriation-of-citizens-and-their-protection-abroad/ : Accessed 30 May 2022).

“Naturalization Records, 1853-1943”, Waupaca County, Wisconsin, Clerk of Courts. Petitions, 1921-1925, Waupaca Series 16, Volume 9, Petition No. 879, Filed 2 August 1924, Marie Petersen Christensen; digital images, FamilySearch.org, “Wisconsin County Naturalization Records, 1807-1992”, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZXSV-NXN2 : 30 May 2022) image nos. 246-250. (Viewing the image of Marie's petition requires a free-of-charge FamilySearch.org account)

“Naturalization Records, 1853-1943”, Waupaca County, Wisconsin, Clerk of Courts. Petitions, 1921-1925, Waupaca Series 16, Volume 9, Petition No. 866, Filed 1 March 1924, Christian Andrew Christensen; digital images, FamilySearch.org, “Wisconsin County Naturalization Records, 1807-1992”, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZZMK-5Q2M : accessed 30 May 2022), image nos. 206-209. (Viewing the image of C.A.'s petition requires a free-of-charge FamilySearch.org account)

Wikipedia contributors, "Cable Act," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cable_Act&oldid=1084647817 (Accessed May 30, 2022).

Clara Petersen, Army Nurse Corps, World War I - UPDATE June 2018

On a recent trip to celebrate our wedding anniversary in Madison, Wisconsin, Caroline and I were on Capitol Square and decided to visit the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. Pleasantly surprised that admission was free, we became immediately absorbed in the first gallery exhibition about Wisconsin in the U.S. Civil War, 1861 - 1865. We were fascinated by the information about the effects of injury and disease upon the soldiers in that war.

Moving on to the next gallery, we saw that it contained a temporary exhibition, remembering the contributions of  Wisconsin men and women in World War One:

 WWI BEYOND THE TRENCHES: 

Stories from the Front

My eye was immediately drawn to the far wall of the exhibition gallery, and the red cross flag, in a display of information about Wisconsin women who served as nurses in World War One.

Moving closer, I looked at the nurse's uniform, cap and boots in a display case posed before a stretcher.  Glancing at the wall, I saw this exhibit label:

Imagine my surprise and pride to see the service of my great-great Aunt, Clara C. Petersen, honored in this centennial exhibition of "The Great War."

Here are some other images from the display on Wisconsin nurses in that war:

 

The woman pictured below is Madison native Helen Bulovsky, who worked at Base Hospital #22, just outside of Bordeaux, France, in an area called the Beau Desert (Beautiful Desert). The nurse's cap and boots in the uniform display belonged to her.

This exhibition will be on display until July 13, 2020. 

My original blog post about Clara C. Petersen's service in World War One may be found here.

 

Clara Petersen, Army Nurse Corps, World War I

Clara Petersen (1886-1966) was two years old when her young mother died, leaving father Robert to work the farm near Elba, Nebraska and to raise four daughters, aged 7 to 2. Clara grew to be a strong, independent woman. Trained as a Red Cross nurse, at age 31 Clara volunteered for service in the Army Nurse Corps.

The Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison holds, among its collections, Clara's uniform and medical kit. When she donated those items, she wrote the following statement about her service:

”I was a member of Base Hosp. 11 which was a Chicago Unit comprised of Augustana St. Mary and St. Joseph nurses and doctors. I was on duty at Camp Upton, Long Island (New York) 3 months before going overseas. While there I was on duty with Base Hospital 11 from August 25, 1918 til January 15, 1919 and transported to Evacuation Hospital 28 which took over the Base 11 when their personnel was sent back to the States. I was with Evac. 28 until they closed about June 1, 1919, returned here in July. While in France stationed at Base Section 5 at Grand Blottereau”.

From the museum's searchable online artifacts collection, here is Clara's hat:

  

and medical kit:

  

Clara continued to care for the health needs of veterans, working at the National Military Home at Wood in Milwaukee during the 1930s. Her Christensen nephews remembered her as their "rich aunt," because she always drove a late model car. With a sister, she invested in rental property in California, where she died in 1966. 

Sources:

• MacDonald, Lyn. The Roses of no man's land: nurses on the Western front. London, England : Penguin books, 2013. Your local public library's interlibrary loan service can help you borrow a copy of this book if you are interested in this topic.

•  United States World War I Centennial Commission 

• wisvetsmuseum.com (To see more photographs of Clara's uniform, go to Collections->Search Collections->Collections Database->Advanced Search by Name of Clara Petersen).

• Portrait from: Yellowstone County, Montana, in the world war, 1917-1918-1919, by William W. Gail.