Dona, I should have made it clearer. They were married in Sandlofs, Hesse, Germany in 1830. Heinrich was born there and so was his father. So I am confused as to why he would have become "a recent citizen" according to the marriage registration. Is this the same as reaching the age of majority here? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Ginni Morey from Campbell CA Santa Clara County Historical & Genealogical Society Web Master: http://www.rootsweb.com/~cascchgs/ Personal Home page: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~reinwald mailto: GLMorey@earthlink.net <mailto:GLMorey@earthlink.net> -----Original Message----- From: DonaRitchi@aol.com [mailto:DonaRitchi@aol.com] Sent: 08 August, 2003 1:52 PM To: HESSE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [HESSE] Citizen In a message dated 8/8/03 1:17:44 PM, glmorey@earthlink.net writes: << I'm just getting started in Germany and have found the marriage for my 4Great Grandparents. It list my grandfather as a recent citizen. What is the significance of this? Is there a certain age they become citizens? Or do they become citizens when marrying? >> Before 1906 the rules about naturalization were different than they are now. Your grandfather would have had to apply for naturalization after a certain period of time in this country, and wait for five years after his entry to obtain it. Marrying a woman who was a citizen of the U.S. at that time made her a non-citizen, and did not help him at all. If your ancestor was a recent citizen, then he'd probably have been in the U.S. for a number of years before his marriage. Unless, of course, the word "citizen" was not referring to his legal status but merely to his residence in the given place. See the following site for a good summary of the laws during this time period: http://www.cip.umd.edu/~mddlmddl/791/legal/html/immi1800.html Dona Ritchie ==== HESSE Mailing List ==== Many towns in Germany have the same name! Add the 5-digit zip code in front of the name! Zip codes explained, http://members.cox.net/hessen/table.htm