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Immigrant Ancestors and WWII Alien Registrations

Image: rawpixel   It never occurred to me that my immigrant ancestors who did not naturalize after they came to the United States would be considered aliens. But an Ancestry hint for my great-grandmother Catherine Cassidy Baker tipped me off to this fact and a new Ancestry collection as well. The Alien Registration Act of 1940 required any non-citizen entering and living within the U.S. to register within four months at a local post office. 1  The process included completing a questionnaire consisting of 15 questions and to be fingerprinted. This requirement allowed the U.S. government to know the whereabouts and activities of the resident aliens, including where they worked, what sorts of clubs or organizations they belonged to, etc., in an effort to stem any anti-American activities. It was also intended to protect individuals from suspicion or harassment from others who might have learned of their status as a non-citizen. In a statement upon signing the ...
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MYSTERY PHOTO

Detail of photo tentatively identified as John Joseph Gilbride.1

31 Days of Writing Family History Challenge

January 8, 2022:   Paternal Great Grandfather #1  - John Joseph Gilbride (1876-1937)


by Nancy Gilbride Casey

Old family photos are a real treasure, but trying to identify who they picture can be a bear! 

Take this photo, another in the trove of photos lent to me by my cousin for scanning. It is actually a combination of a photo and a postcard. There is no identification of the young man pictured, but the card does contain several clues which lead to a tentative identification as John Joseph Gilbride, one of my paternal great grandfathers.

Complete image.2
 

John was born to Michael Gilbride and Catherine Ryan Gilbride on 20 February 1876, in Scranton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.3 The young man in the photo appears to be in his late teens or early 20s. If this is John and he was of that age range, the photo might have been taken between 1893-1897 or so.

Looking at his clothing and investigating a little fashion history can determine what clothing was popular during that time.

Clothing - The most distinctive items are his overcoat, hat and shirt.

  • Overcoat - The long overcoat which fell below the knee was fashionable in the late 1890s and early 1900s. 
  • Bowler hat - Created in about 1849, the bowler was originally meant as a close-fitting, sturdy hat for gamekeepers on an English estate, which resisted being knocked or blown off. The hat was popular with the working classes in Britain, Ireland and America during the second half of the 19th century and later with the upper classes in the U.K.4
  • The shirt collar appears to be a stand up, turned down, detachable collar which were worn between the mid- to late-1800s through the 1920s or so. Detachable collars and cuffs allowed the most visible part of the shirt to be laundered more regularly than the shirt itself. 

Print showing men posed wearing fall and winter business and theater fashions with overcoats and hats, published in 1899. Note longer coat (above right and lower left) and bowler hats.5

 
Detail of men's fashion plate 1890-1900.6

Photo Studio Marking - The photo back bears a stamp, "Ebert Studio, Providence Square, Scranton." Determining when this studio was in business to further pin down the photo's time frame...stay tuned for further details. The person in the photo clearly lived in Scranton at the time of the photo. John Gilbride lived in Scranton until about 1919 when he and his family—including Grandpa Gilbride—moved to Cleveland.7 So the timeline still fits him.

Photo postcard back.

Photo Provenance - The photo has been handed down through a succession of John J. Gilbride's descendants, and is now in the collection of his great granddaughter. It would make sense that it was a photo of a Gilbride.

Family Resemblance? - I see traces of some of our Gilbride family—especially some of my male Gilbride cousins—in this man's face. Do you?


NOTES

1 Ebert Studio, Providence Square, Scranton, Pa., photo tentatively identified as John J. Gilbride, about 1895-1900. Private collection of R. Firestone [address for private use], 2022.

2 Ibid.

3 Holy Rosary Church (Scranton, Luzerne, Pennsylvania), Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, Baptisms and Marriages, Combined Register, 1860-1887, p. 146, baptism of John Gilbride, (20 Jan. 1876); digital image, "Teresa M. McAndrew Memorial Catholic Record Collection," Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, supplied to Nancy Gilbride Casey, Tioga, TX.

4 Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowler_hat : accessed 8 January 2022), "Bowler Hat," rev: 8 January 2022, at 05:45 

5 Jno. J. Mitchell Co. American fashions / The Jno. J. Mitchell Co. Litho., New York. United States, ca. 1899. New York: Publishers, The Jno. J. Mitchell Co., August. Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/item/2006676665/ : accessed 8 January 2022).

6 Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries Digital Collection, Costume Institute Fashion Plates, Men 1890-1900, plate 136 (https://cdm16028.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15324coll12/id/10368/rec/9  : accessed 8 January 2022). In the public domain. 

7 1920 United States Federal Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, supervisor district 19, enumeration district (ED) 942, sheet 12B, dwelling 190, house 224, 916 E. 147th Street, John Gilbride, age 44; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4384964_00593 : accessed 8 January 2022); citing NARA microfilm publication T625 ; image 24 of 51.

 

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