Chapter 9

When reading Chapter nine I became very interested in the topic of paper sons and did some additional research and found out that before the 1920's you could only have American citizenship if your father was an American citizen not your mother. It was assumed that a woman would give up her citizenship in favor of the one her husband took on. To combat all the falsifying of documents the immigration officers of the time began an interview process that essentially questioned the child on their Father or home village and family history. However either the Paper sons and daughter themselves or their parents bought coaching books with background information on their paper family. These interrogations were not simply created because of the high number of paper children coming into the country, but because there were no written records to consult. The would be paper sons and daughters were detained on Angel Island where there examination would take place. I thought it was interesting that so many Paper Children are part of the history of a city I grew up in and know so well.