• The Pennsylvania Archives
• The Papers of the Continental Congress
• The Organizational Index to Civil War Pensions
• The Southern Claims
• FBI Case Files 1908-1922

Someday I’ll find the time to describe each of those titles in some detail. The story of how each of them came to be on the site is of no small interest to researchers. But that will have to wait. Today, I’ve resolved to tell you about one kind of record in the FBI Case Files. That record is an “Application for Exception from Classification of Enemy Alien.” It’s a mouthful.

BACKGROUND

In each of the two world wars, the US required aliens to register. In WWI, a presidential order required registration with the US Marshal for all non-citizens. Germans were automatically enemy aliens. Marshals registered about 480,000 of them, and established restricted zones around some docks, factories, arsenals, and the like. About 200,000 permits were issued to aliens. It might have seemed as though President Wilson was writing an executive order to hassle these people about once a month. In November 1917, he ordered US Marshals to remove all enemy aliens from Washington DC and to report their arrivals in other cities. According to USMarshals.gov, thereafter it went like this:

• 26 Dec 1917. Arrange for registration of all male Germans in cities over 5,000.
  
• 5 Jan 1918. Compile descriptions of all enemy aliens arrested. Arrange registration of all enemy alien males at local police stations and post offices between February 4 and 9.
• 12 Jan 1918. Assist enemy aliens in finding employment.
• 6 Apr 1918. Locate enemy aliens who fail to register.
• 25 Apr 1918. Register female enemy aliens.
• 6 May 1918. Apply all enemy alien regulations to females.

This should give you an idea about the plight of your German-American ancestors. The regulations were restrictive, and more than one person filled out a form to be removed from the list. This involved submitting a document headed, “Application for Exception from Classification of Enemy Alien” – hereafter “Application.” Some people did it out of patriotism – the US was the only country they had ever known. Others did it to avoid being ostracized. In 1917, the New York Herald published the names and addresses of 28,000 “German Enemy Aliens.”

But rather than generalizing about their motives, I want to tell you about the records. Let’s review the case of Freddy Stock.