#(see 'neighbors in conflict' by ronald h. bayo for more info)

[amarriageoftrueminds]

Joseph Rogers & America:

Follow up to this ask about Steve and Bucky’s extended family from pre-war. 

~

In CATFA, Steve said his dad was injured by mustard gas in WWI, but was in the 107th infantry, an American regiment, not an Irish one. 

On the face of it, that makes it look like Joseph Rogers must have been in NYC from at least March 1917, possibly as late as Oct 1917 (since America only joined WWI in April 1917, but didn't deploy until 20 November). 

However... 

If Joseph was living in Ireland between 1914-1918 then he would’ve been drafted into a UK Regiment before he could emigrate to America (since Ireland was then still part of the UK). Even as a resident alien in America, if he hadn’t already declared intent to become a US citizen he would’ve been subject to the UK’s draft instead. 

So even though America didn’t join the war until 1917, to have avoided the UK draft altogether Joseph probably has to have been in New York since at least 1914... unless, as said, he emigrated later but had already declared intent to become a US citizen. 

(My first thought was that Sarah must have been with him, but not necessarily... She and Joseph could’ve married in Ireland, then he could have emigrated first, before her, to earn enough money to bring her along. Her alienation from an extended family network could’ve been because of this, or some other reason.) 

Joseph and Sarah would’ve known from April 1917 that Joseph was going to be deployed with the US Army. 

So if you believe the DOB for Steve being July 4 1918, then we know Joseph and Sarah must've been in the same place on Oct 7, 1917. 

(Or a little later, if Steve was born premature, which is another possibility. Unless Steve’s real DOB is something else in 1918. But which months it could’ve been are severely limited by the dates of Joseph’s potential deployments.) 

Which puts the date of Steve's ‘official’ conception right before Joseph could conceivably have first been deployed (Nov 1917). 

That to me suggests a certain urgency. 

If Sarah wasn’t already with Joseph in NYC by then, she definitely emigrated at the very latest in October 1917.

It’s a potentially quite bittersweet scenario of Sarah going by boat all the way to America to be with her husband, only for her husband to be almost immediately shipped off to Europe to fight in the war. 😕

#historically accurate stucky tag #irish steve #steve rogers #steve meta #joseph rogers #sarah rogers #joseph rogers meta #sarah rogers meta #mcu meta #meta #mcu #barring visits she would’ve been alone for the entire term of her pregnancy #(and it’s possible Joseph received his injury before Steve was born too just to make matters even worse!) #like to think of them as being a star-crossed protestant/catholic couple #hence the apparent lack of family/community support for single mum sarah #apropos of nothing I also like to hc that their real names were seosamh and saoirse but they anglicized them when they emigrated #it's also possible that she and steve were alienated from the local irish catholic community... #by the antisemitism rife (but not universal) among the irish-catholics of nyc at the time #(see 'neighbors in conflict' by ronald h. bayo for more info) #not sure where I'm going with this I just thought it was interesting... #my meta