Citizenship by Marriage 1915

[mler]

I found this in an article in the government archives. (I'm sorry that I don't have the link, but I've yet to figure out how to do it on the iPad.) This seems to indicate that your ggm would have become a citizen in 1917 with her husband.

"After 1907, marriage determined a woman's nationality status completely. Under the act of March 2, 1907, all women acquired their husband's nationality upon any marriage occurring after that date. This changed nothing for immigrant women, but U.S.-born citizen women could now lose their citizenship by any marriage to any alien. Most of these women subsequently regained their U.S. citizenship when their husbands naturalized. However, those who married Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, or other men racially ineligible to naturalize forfeited their U.S. citizenship. Similarly, many former U.S. citizen women found themselves married to men who were ineligible to citizenship for some other reason or who simply refused to naturalize. Because the courts held that a husband's nationality would always determine that of the wife, a married woman could not legally file for naturalization.(6)"

[nicolefazio]

here is the link to the above post by mler

http://www.archives.gov/publications/pr ... ion-1.html

[mler]

Thank you.

[jennabet]

It's possible that your gggf lied or was misunderstood. The census information is notoriously inaccurate. If he was indeed naturalized, his children would have been US citizens from birth (although there are some residency considerations that may have affected this).

As far as your ggm is concerned, however, even if she were born in the US and received her US citizenship jus soli, she would have lost her US citizenship when she married her Italian husband before 1922. That would explain the 1915 census information.

My gm was born in NYC and lost her US citizenship when she married my Italian grandfather before 1922. They both naturalized separately in 1928. It took me long time to determine why my American born gm had to naturalize

Your grand-mother is not Italian and was born in the United States. I'm sure it's quite confusing to applicants to be constantly reminded about the 1922 Cable Act when it did not apply to naturalized women that were born in Italy. Also, a non natural born American citizen (or one who is naturalized) cannot be naturalized twice. In this case, the woman in question lost her Italian citizenship when her father naturalized. She became an American citizen in Italy the moment her absent father took the US oath of allegiance. She automatically held dual citizenship through marriage when she married an Italian citizen, however, it's possible she may not be able to pass this type of Italian citizenship down to her children because she renounced her blood Italian citizenship when her father naturalized. She was never stateless.

[mler]

If the gm was not affected by the Cable Act, why it was necessary for her to naturalize in 1928.

This from the government archives cited above by Nicole:

After 1907, marriage determined a woman's nationality status completely. Under the act of March 2, 1907, all women acquired their husband's nationality upon any marriage occurring after that date.

I do agree, though, that there is an inconsistency here. According to the law at that time, she should have regained her citizenship when her husband naturalized in 1917.