1918 Newspaper Article

Waupaca County Post - June 13, 1918

I noticed this article when we were searching for obituaries at the Wisconsin Historical Society last month. How many of our maternal German ancestors were frightened by a similar notice? I found it interesting that only women were required to register, although men may have had to do the same at a previous time.

The article explains the notice I found many years ago placed by Katherine Schmidt Nickel, my great-great-grandfather's sister, explaining that she would now be writing her name "Nicol, as that was the original spelling and would seem more American." Interestingly, her announcement appeared in the same issue of the paper as this article. And the Schmidt family did come from Germany.

Not only was that NOT the original spelling, her husband was from Ireland, even though the surname could be seen as "German." Why was she concerned? When I rechecked the 1910 census, it states that her husband was not a citizen; therefore, neither was she. He had passed away in 1912 without becoming naturalized; she would have been a citizen if he had completed that process.