My grandfather and some of his brothers emigrated from Romania to the US in the early 1900s. Some of his older brothers remained in Europe (supposedly one was a "stallmeister" for the kaiser - any of you know what that meant?).
Therefore, my grandfather and brothers had non-combat positions in WWI (he was a motorcycle messenger?) with a specific letter from WW.
Would this have been unusual exceptions? or was this common with so many german and other recent emigres? if it was common, why would we get a personal letter? would this have happened in other wars throughout history that people with ties to both sides might not be forced to fight their family? or were they expected to do the bidding of their leaders and fight anyways?
To clarify you are saying your family claims to have a letter exempting another family member from conscription (the draft) because of this set of facts? Was it from a local draft board or from some other source? Can you get a copy of the letter and verify it exists, since you state this is a claim made within the family? I could see a local draft board granting an exemption under other grounds, perhaps, but I am aware of no statutory exemption from conscription for this reason. Have you checked your ancestor’s WWI draft registration card? Should be on Fold3. To trigger anything like that he’d have had to meet registration deadlines and register first.