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. > > Thank you for showing an interest > > Melville > > ==== GenWisconsin Mailing List ====