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Regaining her Citizenship

January 26, 2024

Reeka Larsen filed an “Application to Take Oath of Allegiance” in Long Beach, California in 1955. This application was filed to reinstate Reeka’s U.S. citizenship. She’d lost her citizenship when she married James Larsen in 1912. Reeka was born in Meeker County, Minnesota in 1885. She was a natural born American citizen, but her husband was born in Sweden and was not a citizen of the U.S. when they married.

 

Like thousands of other women during this era, Reeka lost her American citizenship simply by marrying a foreigner. In 1907 Congress passed the Expatriation Act which provided that a female U.S. citizen automatically lost citizenship upon marriage to an alien. The law was based on the principle that women assumed the citizenship of their husbands. The reverse was not true. American men who married aliens did not lose their citizenship. In fact, their foreign wives immediately became American citizens as soon as they said their “I do’s.”

 

The Expatriation act was in effect from 1907 until 1922. Even after this unfair act was repealed, women who had lost their citizenship did not have it automatically reinstated. They needed to file paperwork and take an oath of allegiance to do that. Many of these records can be found online on Ancestry.com and Family Search.

 

In Reeka’s case, her husband James eventually filed a Declaration of Intent to become an American citizen, but he did not finish the process. Reeka and James were married for over thirty years. During that time, they moved to various parts of the U.S. They eventually ended up in California, where James died in 1943.

 

Even after James’ death, Reeka’s citizenship was not restored. The U.S. government considered her to be Swedish, even after her husband’s death. Although Sweden will allow a foreign spouse of a Swede to become a Swedish citizen, a specific procedure must be followed. Sweden would not have considered Reeka to be Swedish. This left her without citizenship anywhere in the world.

 

I don’t know exactly why Reeka filed to reclaim her citizenship in 1955. She may have wanted to claim Social Security benefits in her old age, or perhaps she needed a passport to take a trip. Whatever the reason, Reeka’s application was accepted. After over forty years as a citizen of nowhere, she was once again an American.

 

Even if you don’t think you have ancestors who were impacted by the Expatriation Act, it’s worth checking the citizenship status of women on censuses from 1910 and later. Since I learned about this often-overlooked era of U.S. history, I have been surprised at how many of my collateral relatives lost their citizenship through marriage. Reeka is my distant cousin, but she’s not the only woman whose life was changed by this act. There were thousands of them. Their stories deserve to be recovered.

 

Carol Stetser

Larimer County Genealogical Society

Researcher

 

 

 

Online Family Trees: A Good Starting Point

January 19, 2024

Whenever I’m starting a new family history project, I begin my research with a peek at one or more of the big online family trees. By checking Family Search Family Tree and Ancestry’s Family Trees (these are just a couple that I use, there are many others), I can quickly tell how much research has already been done on a person. I can also get an idea of who else is researching this person.

 

I know that many people denigrate online family trees. They claim that they’re full of misinformation. They rarely, if ever, use them as part of their research. I agree that information from other people’s family trees should never be copied into your own tree without doing your own research to verify it. That’s a great way to perpetuate misinformation in your own tree.

 

However, not all the information on family trees is wrong. I have gotten leads on family trees that helped me break down longstanding brick walls. For example, for many years I tried, unsuccessfully, to find the father of my husband’s third great grandfather, Bagwell Topping. Then, on a routine check of online trees featuring Bagwell, I noticed that someone had posted Levi Topping as Bagwell’s father. They’d backed up their claim with a copy of a probate document stating that Levi Topping was Bagwell’s father. Furthermore, they included the source of the document. The document came from a record set held by the Library of Virginia. I was able to verify that the source was correct.

 

Many online trees now contain copies of original documents. The Family Search Family Tree is particularly rich in documents. Whenever you find something of interest on a family tree, be sure to check any attached sources. You never know what you may find. Thanks to an Ancestry family tree, my husband now has a named fourth great grandfather. The chances are that I wouldn’t have found the document on my own. I certainly wouldn’t have found it as easily as I did.

 

Not all online family trees contain sources, but they may still be accurate. If the information contained on a tree seems plausible, do some research to verify it. Check out census records, birth and death records, probate, and any other applicable records you can find before you add the information to your own tree. If you can’t find supporting documentation, it is still worthwhile to make a note of the information on the tree. You may be able to verify or disprove it later.

 

Another way to find out more about an online tree is to write the person who posted it. Trees usually have a way to contact the owner, either directly or through the hosting website. I have had reasonable success in contacting tree owners. Not all of them will respond. Some will, and you may find that they have further information to share. Some, of course, will respond, and you will find that they were guessing when the information to their tree. You never know until you try.

 

Online family trees are my favorite starting point when I’m beginning a new research project for myself or someone else. They can be a shortcut that will save hours of research time. However, I would never accept anything on a tree as true unless I had verified it myself. Trees are not a substitute for actual research.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

 

 

Grandma’s Chuckcockers

January 12, 2024

My paternal grandmother was from Norway. Some of my earliest memories are about her Scandinavian cooking. There were, of course, her famous Christmas cookies and the infamous fiskebollers which were pasty white fishballs that tasted as horrible as they looked.

 

Then there were the chuckcockers that, until recently, I hadn’t even realized were Norwegian. Chuckcockers are meatballs in gravy that made frequent appearances on Grandma’s table. I was only so-so about their taste, but my dad loved them. He convinced my non-Scandinavian mother to make them, so they are one of the tastes of my childhood that were repeated both at home and at Grandma’s.

 

My mother’s chuckcockers were blander than my grandmother’s, but both consisted of ground beef seasoned with a little salt and pepper, then mixed with breadcrumbs and a little milk. Grandma might have added a dash of nutmeg and some minced onions to her recipe, but I’m sure my mother didn’t. Mom used only salt and pepper in her recipes, and I know she could make one onion last all winter because she used so little in her meals.

 

Once the meat was mixed, my mother and grandmother formed it into large meatballs which were flattened into thick patties. These were fried in a little butter until both sides were browned, then removed from the pan, and a roux was made with flour and the drippings from the meat. Beef broth was added to the roux to make gravy. Once the gravy was thickened, the meat was returned to the pan to simmer until it was cooked through. Boiled potatoes, a steamed vegetable and lingonberry jam round

out the meal.

 

For many years I assumed that my grandmother had invented chuckcockers to make a filling meal out of a pound of ground beef. I guessed that the name chuckcocker came from the fact that Grandma used ground chuck for her meatballs. The cocker part, I believed, was Norwegian. I knew kaker was the Norwegian word for cakes or cookies.

 

It was only when I began to do genealogy that I learned the true story of the chuckcockers. As part of my study of my Scandinavian ancestors, I did a Rosetta Stone program on the Swedish language. There I learned that köttkakor was Swedish for meatballs. Its pronunciation is similar to my old friend chuckcockers. A quick check on Google Translate informed me that the Norwegian word for meatballs is  kjøttkaker – meat cakes or cookies. Although they’re akin to Swedish meatballs, Norwegian meatballs differ from the Swedish version in several ways.Swedish meatballs are usually made from several types of ground meat, often including beef, pork, and veal. Traditional Norwegian meatballs are made only from ground beef. Norwegian meatballs are also larger than their Swedish cousins. The Norwegian balls are also flattened, not round; hence the name kaker. When I was a child, Norwegian meatballs seemed like fat hamburger patties to me. Grandma’s chuckcockers weren’t unique to her; they were a typical Norwegian recipe. The only difference was that her American children and grandchildren anglicized the name.I never cared enough to find out how my mother and grandmother made their chuckcockers. Now that I know they’re a traditional Norwegian dish, I want to reclaim my heritage by making them. Following is a recipe based on my memories of Grandma’s meatballs with a few additions from various online recipes. Grandma’s ChuckcockersMeatballs1 pound ground beef1 tbsp butter1 tsp salt¼ tsp pepper¼ tsp ground nutmeg½ cup milk(Some recipes call for grated onion and a ½ cup of dried breadcrumbs. I don’t think Grandma used them, but they might be a tasty addition) Gravy 2 tbsp butter2 tbsp flourSalt and pepper to taste2 cups beef broth Mix all the ingredients for the meatballs and form them into golf ball sized orbs. Flatten them slightly. Fry them in melted butter until both sides of the patties are browned. Place meatballs on a platter while you make gravy.Make gravy by adding flour to the butter and meat drippings to make a roux. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in two cups of beef broth. Stir until the gravy is thickened. Return meatballs to the gravy and simmer for about 20 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through. Carol StetserResearcher