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Alien Registration Form Update

Image: rawpixel In "Immigrant Ancestors and Alien Registration," I wrote about a new Ancestry database, " U.S., WWII Alien Registration, 1940-1955 ." In the database, I identified six of my immigrant ancestors who were required to register as aliens during WWII, and I began the process of obtaining copies of their AR-2 Forms.  Here's my update.   First Steps Prior to my first post on this subject, I watched the webinar "Finding and Using Alien Registration Forms for 20th Century Immigrants ." This video was recorded earlier this year, before the Ancestry database came out in late July. While the video discusses searching the government's Flexoline database to obtain an individual's alien registration number, the Ancestry database is based on the Flexoline data. Once you have that alien registration number from the Ancestry collection, you can email your request to NARA. The video is still very helpful for the background on alien registrations ...
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I'll See You When We're Older

This blog post is part of the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" writing challenge by genealogist, blogger and podcast host Amy Johnson Crow. This week's prompt: Love.

Kooky selfie, before selfies were a thing. Somewhere around the Ring of Kerry, Ireland, 2006. (Photo by Jim and Nancy Casey - not sure who was holding the camera.)

What is genealogy except tales of loves through the ages? In each of our families, from generation to generation, there are stories of love that has overcome obstacles, of love that survived wars and separation, of love cut short, of love lost or thwarted, and of love that produced dozens, hundreds and thousands of descendants.

Then there are our own love stories. Do we tell them, or do they seem too commonplace, too ordinary to be of note?

I've heard it said that we need to remember to write our own stories, our own histories, and not just search out those long-past ancestors.

No matter how ordinary, each love story is extraordinary in its own way.

And so, here are some things about the Nancy & Jim's Love Story you may not know:
  • We did not even live in the same state when we met. Jim was a technical director at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and I was a dancer in Mark Taylor & Friends Dance Company, a New York-based modern dance troupe. Our company was doing a residency at the Bates Dance Festival and he was our technical director for our concert.
  • The first time I saw Jim, he was doing tech stuff onstage, and he had on a pair of cowboy boots, which made an authoritative sound when he strode across the stage.
  • Our first "date" was what I like to call a "forced march" through a supposed bird sanctuary. In reality there were more frogs than birds. But the company was nice.
  • On our second "date," I panicked and invited someone else along to eat pizza with us.
  • At the end of the three-week residency, Jim was going off to complete his grad degree at Western Illinois University. I was going back to New York. We didn't even know we would ever see each other again.
  • Even though I barely knew him then, Jim lent me money to go to Ohio to see Grandpa Gilbride, when he had suffered a stroke in August 1990. I would not have been able to see Grandpa before he died otherwise.
  • In the days before the Internet, we actually wrote letters and cards to one another, sometimes more than one a day. And we still have them all.
  • We also talked nearly every night on the phone. I think Sprint is still looking for us.
  • Jim and I got engaged about four months after we met. My mother nearly had a heart attack. (In later years, I would find out she and Dad got married after about four months of knowing each other!)
  • Jim and I managed to visit one another once every 4-6 weeks or so from September 1990-May 1991, when we finally moved to Pennsylvania together for Jim to start a new job at Juniata College.
  • Our "rehearsal dinner" was pizza and beer in Mom's backyard in Willowick. And it was delicious.
  • Our wedding was Catholic, and held in Willowick, Ohio at my parish there, St. Mary Magdalene. Jim, though raised Southern Baptist, submitted to all the Catholic prerequisites including meeting with my then-parish priest in Brooklyn, New York. Jim and I knew each other well enough (all those calls and letter!), that the priest--though he admitted his reservations about our short acquaintance--basically said, "Yeah, you guys are fine!" and signed off on us getting married after one meeting.
  • We were married on 31 Aug 1991, during Labor Day Weekend.
  • Wedding gifts of cash & checks were literally counted as we opened them to make sure we could cover rent until Jim's first paycheck!
  • We did not have a honeymoon after our wedding, as Jim needed to get back to Juniata College to teach and had no time off yet. Our honeymoon was a trip to Ireland for our 15th Anniversary. 
  • We have lived in the following locations: State College, Pennsylvania; Tyrone, Pennsylvania; Winona, Minnesota; Lewisville, Texas; Corinth, Texas; Houston, Texas; Corinth, Texas (again), and Tioga, Texas. 
  • Jim always promised me an adventure, and he has kept his word. 
  • Jim is the better cook, and the Plan Man. I am the better house cleaner and the one who remembers all the birthdays.
  • We have two great kids, Anne Katherine and James Quentin, who make our family completely perfect.
  • Our marriage has lasted longer than the marriages of both our sets of parents. We're grateful, proud and blessed by that.
There is so much more that I could write, as how do you fit nearly 29 years of marriage into one blog post? It's a story that keeps being written year after year.

One of my favorite songs includes these lyrics:

"I'll see you in the future when we're older, and we are full of stories to be told."1

We are. Yes, we are.




 1  Bastille. Lyrics to "Laughter Lines." All This Bad Blood, 2013, https://genius.com/Bastille-laughter-lines-lyrics

























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