Hi Ashley, Thank you for this bit of information. I understand women automatically became naturalized citizens when their husbands became naturalized. But didn't American women loose their citzenship when they married an alien? And then once he became a citizen she automatically got back her American Citizenship? Melville in Tokyo >Sometime in the 1920's naturalization policy changed with regard to women who >were married to naturalized citizens. Previously, women became naturalized >citizens when the men they were married to became naturalized citizens. With >the passage of the women's suffrage amendment, this would have been a dubious >legal point. Adult women now applied separately for naturalization. > Some women had come to America to join their husbands. He may have >made a >commitment to stay, and even became a naturalized citizen. She may have >hoped >to go home, back to the old country, and never got the paperwork going. > In WW2, the Japanese-American internments hit these women hard. They >were >frightened of loosing their families, of being separated, interned, deported. >Naturalization applications among long-time resident aliens went up sharply. > >Ashley > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >Mel Fletcher wrote: > >> >> On the 1870 Wausau Census it shows my ancestor >> >> George Rhodes, born in England, as being eligible to vote. Would this >> >> mean that a person who is eligible to vote has to be a Naturalized >> >> Citizen? >> > >> >NO! In the mid-1800s, one only had to have signed a "Declaration of Intent >> >to Become a Citizen" in order to vote. I recently pored over voter rolls >> >in Dane County and found many who voted before their citizenship was >> >finalized. This was later changed to require citizenship for voting, but >> >I'm not sure when. >> >Hope this helps, >> >Kathy Lenerz >> >> Hi Kathy, >> >> You are absolutely right. I just got word from UWSP Archives and they >> told me the same thing. The good news they found my George Rhodes >> Declaration of Intent. >> I'm also curious why folks never bothered to become a citizen? Were there >> expenses involved? Were there little benefits in becoming a citizen? Was >> duel citizenship allowed in those days? If these folks travelled abroad >> was it easy for them to get back into the US? Was there something like >> the "Green Card" we have today? Could one get a passport with only a >> Declaration of Intent? >> And in my case I believe his American born wife would loose her U.S. >> citizenship if he didn't petition for naturalization. I suppose he could >> have filed for it in another county away from where he made his >> Declaration of Intent.