Alaine wrote.... as much as that we ourselves were of limited legal standing and the responsibility of our fathers and husbands. Thats what I ment about 'not smart enough'..back then women had almost no rights women 'knew little' and men 'knew everything'. Didn't matter that maby the women had far more intellegence than the guardian ...the guardian was a man ... women just had limited rights back then...if they had any...we were good enough to raise kids and take care of the house but where legal matters were concerned forget it....we could not apply to get citizenship our husbands and fathers did and passed it on to us..we just plain did not have any rights back then...seems to me a mother was intellegent enough to sign papers for apprenticeship papers as a guardian was...but she evidently was not allowed to...why because she was a women... SLC