GI Bride Nationalities and numbers

Just wondering , did anyone make a note of how many GI Brides went to the USA Postwar & is there a breakdown of numbers from different countries ?

 

That's an interesting question. I'd guess that British and German brides would be at the top of the list because so many men were in the UK for such a long time prior to the European campaign and then in Germany for occupation duties after the war.

 

That's what I was thinking too.
Thought there might some numbers somewhere or maybe no-one kept records like that.

 

Cheers Lou,
That's interesting.

Quite a few numbers mentioned in that first link.
That'll do me.

 

Interesting video from 1947 here.

www.britishpathe.com/video/gi-brides-the-truth-1

50000 British GI brides mentioned there too just before mentioning the US divorce rate.

 

this page says by 1949 about 20000 German brides went to the USA.

www.atlantic-times.com/archive_detail.php?recordID=363

this page says it lower than that.

www.americainwwii.com/articles/war-brides/

 

Germany was filled with foreign refugees and workers who didn't want to return east under the Soviets. I suspect a lot of those women weren't actually German but Czech or Polish or whatever, which might explain the discrepancy. I have an old friend whose parents came from Latvia - through Germany - for that reason.

 

Got to consider that the pool of desirable young men for these young German women had been considerably reduced by the fact
so many were KIA and maimed during the war. As I was once told by a WWII vet marrying a "Yank" and going to America was the very best deal a young Greman woman could get. He said occupation duty in Germany meant you really had your pick of some very desperate women.

 

Biak has got a good book with UK numbers in it...I'm sure he will post on here when he has a look...

 

Biak....Picking them up at weekend thanks mate.

 

What date do you use as a "cut off" for the status of "war bride". G.I.s continued to marry women in German and Japan well after the war. In the case of Japan how do you seperate out WWII and Korea if the cut off isn't prior to that date.

 

Can't speak to the number of English and German war brides. But I know of one French one, My mother.

 

Have always wondered if there were any GI husbands.
After reading 'Rich Relations' page 420, I found out today there were 42 British men who went to the USA to join their American wives.

Book also says that between 1941 -1950 , 37,879* UK wives of US citizens were admitted to the USA .
The book goes on to say some women went as fiancees & married in the US & many marriages ended in divorce in the UK & the women never even went to the USA.
Exact numbers cannot be worked out for various reasons.

* source US Dept of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service.