A Forgotten Legacy of the Second World War: GI children in post-war Britain and Germany

Lee, Sabine

doi:10.1017/s096077731100004x

Cited by 49 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…These American GI-children, born to Vietnamese women, are one of many groups of children born of war (CBOW), defined as children fathered by foreign soldiers and born to local mothers (Lee and Mochmann, 2015: 18–19). Recent research (Carpenter, 2007; Ericsson and Simonsen, 2005; Lee, 2017; Seto, 2013) suggests that CBOW were exposed to significant childhood adversities and often suffered from stigmatisation and discrimination, (Glaesmer et al, 2012), but the evidence base beyond specific CBOW groups during and after the Second World War (Ericsson and Simonsen, 2005; Lee, 2011; Mochmann and Larsen, 2005; Muth, 2008; Stelzl-Marx and Satjukow, 2015; Virgili, 2009; Westerlund, 2011a, 2011b) remains limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-interpreted narrative capture: A research project to examine life courses of Amerasians in Vietnam and the United States

Lee

Bartels

2019

Methodological Innovations

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When American troops withdrew from Vietnam in April 1975, they left behind a large number of children fathered by American GIs and born to local Vietnamese women. Although there is some documentation of experiences of GI children who immigrated to the United States, little is known about the life courses of Amerasian children who remained in Vietnam, and no comparative data has been collected. To address this knowledge gap, we used an innovative mixed qualitative – quantitative data collection tool, Cognitive Edge’s SenseMaker®, to investigate the life experiences of three specific cohorts of GI-fathered children from the Vietnam War: (1) those who remained in Vietnam, (2) those who immigrated to the United States as babies or very young children and (3) those who immigrated to the United States as adolescents or adults. The current analysis reflects on the implementation of this mixed-methods narrative data collection and self-interpretation tool as a research methodology in Vietnam and the United States and outlines some of the challenges and lessons learned including recruitment of a hard to reach population, low response rates in the United States and feasibility of using such narrative capture to conduct such research in the United States and in Vietnam.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-interpreted narrative capture: A research project to examine life courses of Amerasians in Vietnam and the United States

Lee

Bartels

2019

Methodological Innovations

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“…21 It is estimated that between 1942 and 1945, American GIs in Britain fathered over 22,000 children. 22 In recent years, DNA has helped uncover the identities of some of these men. 23…”

Section: Where Were Respondents (And Their Parents) Born?mentioning

confidence: 99%

How successful is commercial DNA testing in resolving British & Irish cases of unknown parentage?

Gleeson¹,

Rutherford²,

Kennett³

et al. 2022

JGFH

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This study is the first to characterise the type of people trying to resolve unknown parentage cases in the UK and Ireland, and how successful their efforts are, using commercial DTC (direct-to-consumer) DNA tests. A survey was conducted of individuals born in the UK or Ireland, or with a biological parent from the UK or Ireland, who had used genetic genealogy as a part of their search for one or both biological parents. Success rates were high, with DNA assisting the identification of a birth parent in 48% and 55% of cases (48% for those with unknown fathers and 55% for those with unknown mothers). In an additional 20% and 21% of cases (unknown fathers and unknown mothers respectively), DNA identified grandparents or more distant ancestors. The majority of those identifying a biological parent did so within six months of receiving their DNA results (39% and 55% of cases), and within two years, 78% and 87% had identified a biological parent. The survey also attempted to assess the likelihood of success of the combined use of GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA in IGG (investigative genetic genealogy) cases in Britain and Ireland and found that potentially IGG-suitable matches were present in about 60% of cases. These results complement those of earlier studies and have important implications for social policy in the UK and Ireland.

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“…fathers and British mothers were raised in the U.K. A report carried out for the League of Coloured Peoples uncovered 135 such cases, of an estimated 1,700 children born to black G.I.s. in the U.K. (S. Lee, 2011;McNeill, 1946). Whilst we are not able to test the hypothesis, the low numbers make us think it is unlikely that interactions with G.I.…”

Section: Historical Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shocking Racial Attitudes: Black G.I.s in Europe

Schindler

Westcott

2020

SSRN Journal

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A Forgotten Legacy of the Second World War: GI children in post-war Britain and Germany

Cited by 49 publications

References 14 publications

Self-interpreted narrative capture: A research project to examine life courses of Amerasians in Vietnam and the United States

Self-interpreted narrative capture: A research project to examine life courses of Amerasians in Vietnam and the United States

How successful is commercial DNA testing in resolving British & Irish cases of unknown parentage?

Shocking Racial Attitudes: Black G.I.s in Europe

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