They represent the single largest contiguous movement of migration to Canada, specifically through Pier A provision existed in the Immigration Act that allowed for the admission to Canada of bona fide agriculturalists who had sufficient means to commence farming in Canada. However, immigration remained prohibitive as Order-in-Council P. However Canadian immigration regulations also barred most European political refugees — individuals who fled fascist or communist totalitarian regimes in their homelands since the beginning of the war — from entering Canada in the first two years after the war.
12 Resources for Researching WWI Overseas Marriages
My grandmother's secret marriage to an American GI | Life and style | The Guardian
Mauretania being pulled by tug out of Liverpool berth, February 5, Library and Archives Canada PA The term "war bride" refers to the estimated 48, young women who met and married Canadian servicemen during the Second World War. These war brides were mostly from Britain, but a few thousand were also from other areas of Europe: the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Germany. War brides also came to Canada after the First World War. The official Government of Canada history of the First World War reports that an estimated 54, relatives accompanied the returning troops following demobilization. We salute this remarkable group of Canadian citizens who, for love, followed their husbands.
My grandmother's secret marriage to an American GI
W hen I was growing up, the man I called Grandpa was my grandmother's husband, Patrick. He was the one who let me and my sister ride on his shoulders, and whose enormous walking socks served as stockings at the ends of our beds on Christmas Eve. But over time, I became aware that there had been another, shadowy grandfather before him. There were no pictures of this man in my grandmother's albums, but there were grainy black-and-white photographs of mysterious American "cousins". The unspoken rule in the family, however, was that my grandmother's first marriage should not be mentioned, and she was happy to let people think that Patrick was her daughters' father.
Documenting the foreign-natives who married soldiers overseas can be challenging, but these off-shore marriages were quite common during both WWI and WWII. With the demobilization of the American Expeditionary Forces, many brides said goodbye to their war-torn countries making America their new home. Whereas WWII war bride information is easily accessible, researching WWI overseas marriages requires a bit more sleuthing to answer "when and where the marriage took place? How were the foreign nationals transported?