Chapter 4 · Life in America · Draft & alien registration
Three registrations put birthplaces on paper in the immigrant’s own words. The 1917 draft card, the 1942 draft card and the 1940 alien registration were each filled in with the person standing in front of the clerk.
The June 1917 draft card
On 5 June 1917 every man aged 21 to 30 registered for the draft, citizen or not. The card asks directly where he was born: town, state and nation. The answer, written by a local registrar from what the man said, is a phonetic snapshot of the village name taken from the one person who knew it first-hand. The later 1918 registrations used different cards and do not all ask for the town.
The 1942 “old man’s draft”
In April 1942 men born between 1877 and 1897 registered again. By then many immigrants had lived in America for thirty years and could spell the village themselves. Comparing the 1917 and 1942 cards for the same man often settles a doubtful place name.
Alien registration, 1940 to 1944
Under the Alien Registration Act of 1940 every non-citizen over fourteen registered and was fingerprinted. The form records place and date of birth, date and ship of arrival, address and occupation. It is the record of choice for an ancestor who never naturalized, and it is held by US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
- Search the 1917 card under every spelling of the name
- Look for the 1942 card if the man was born before 1897
- Request the alien registration for anyone still a non-citizen in 1940
How we can help
These cards are among the first records read in Ancestral Village Identification, because they record the village in the immigrant’s own words.