28 December 2012

Do 90 Year-Old Women Naturalize in the US in 1876?


Some of the hints at  Ancestry.com make sense.

Some do not.

This is the page in my tree at  Ancestry.com for my ancestor, Anna Margrete Dirks, born in 1785 in Etzel, Ostfriesland, Germany. I do not know where she died.

At this point, I do not know if Anna came to the United States or not.

But why did Ancestry.com include an 1876 naturalization for Behrend Dirks as a match for Anna? Anna's husband was a Behrend Dirks so that would have been her last name after her marriage, but doesn't  Ancestry.com know that it was highly unusual for women to naturalize in the United States in 1876?

And the fact that she would have been ninety when she naturalized is another matter entirely.

I realize that the search parameters at  Ancestry.com must be set somewhat loosely in order to find things that we do not expect to find. But  loose parameters are one thing. Parameters that indicate ninety year old women naturalize in the United States is another.