APG-L Archives

Archiver > APG > 2003-11 > 1068510267


From:
Subject: [APG] Re: APG-D Digest V03 #331
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 19:24:27 EST


Cindy Hofmeister asked:

<< What I'm wondering, is since the Naturalization law states up until 1922
anyone from the US who married an immigrant lost their US citizenship. Would
this
mean, That even though my great grandmother had been abandoned by her
husband
and no divorce ever taking place. That my great grandmother would have had
to
apply for citizenship? If so, would she have had to go through the normal
procedures of Naturalization?
Has anyone on this list experienced this type of thing? If so, what have you
found the records to be like? Would there be court proceedings, etc.? >>

I am aware of such a case, which didn;t come to light until mid-century, when
a son applied for a military security clearance that required parental
citizenship, and could not be established through the background records check.

The mother, a U.S. citizenby birth, married an alien before 1920, therby
losing her citizenship, which she didn't realize. She became active in politics
after women's suffrage, voting in every election for years and even serving as
a party committee member and as an election officer. Her husband was
naturalized after the 1922 Married Women's Act, which provided that a wife's
citizenship no longer automatically followed that of her husband, so she continued
unknowingly as an alien.

An Act of March 2, 1907 had provided that citizenship of all married women
would follow that of their husbands, even women who were U.S. citizens by
birth, and whose citizenship hadn't previously been affected by marriage.

By the time her non-citizenship was discovered, she was along in years and
too embarrassed over her unwitting loss of citizenship to go through the public
naturalization process, so she just quietly discontinued her political
activism and died an alien.

The only pertinent records, to my knowledge, were of her marriage and of the
later naturalization of her husband, each given effect by the law applicable
at the time of the event. Her voting records and appointments as an election
officer, usually regarded as indirect evidence of citizenship, would have no
weight against the clear documentary record establishing that her citizenship had
been lost and never restored.

All the children were born in the U.S., so were citizens by birth and
unaffected by their parents' alien status.


Donn Devine, CG, CGI
Wilmington DE

CG, Certified Genealogist, CGI, and Certified Genealogical Instructor are
service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license
by board certificants after periodic evaluation, and the board name is
registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.

This thread: