OTD: Marital Expatriates Can More Easily Regain US Citizenship

In my father's family tree, when Vilna-born merchant Samuel Markell (1885-1971) married Boston-born Marion Goldstein (1885-1961) in Revere, Massachusetts in 1911, the new bride took her husband's surname--and also his nationality. He was "Russian" and she became "Russian" at the moment of their wedding.

This was due to the US law known as the Expatriation Act of 1907, which tied a woman's citizenship to that of her husband. By marrying an alien, Marion Goldstein Markell was transformed into a marital expatriate for three decades. Samuel became a US citizen in 1923 but that didn't change his wife's status.

Changes under the Cable Act 

After World War I, and an outcry from US women who gained the right to vote starting in 1920, Congress passed the Cable Act of 1922 to restore citizenship eligibility to women who were marital expatriates. However, the women had to actually apply for naturalization as though they had not been American-born. Many did not. By 1936, US law streamlined the process of allowing marital expatriates to become US citizens. 

Changes on July 2, 1940

Finally, on this day in 1940, a new law amended the 1936 rules. Now women who were marital expatriates could more easily "repatriate" and regain their citizenship, no matter their marital status. They still had to take an oath of allegiance.

And that's why, in June of 1941, Marion Goldstein Markell filed the paperwork to regain her US citizenship. In September of that year, she took the oath of allegiance. Thirty years after losing her US citizenship, she was again legally an American citizen. 

Sarah Mahler Smith, Marital Expatriate

When my great aunt Sarah Sadie Mahler (1889-1974) got married in the Big Apple on April 16, 1912, she lost her US citizenship because her immigrant husband Samuel Smith (1889-1979) was not yet a naturalized US citizen.

Samuel (original name: Simon Solomowitz) was born in the city of Botosani, Romania, and came to New York City with his parents and siblings when he was a little boy. 

After they married in Manhattan, Sam and Sarah moved to Fort Edward, NY so he could work in the paper mills. By 1920, the Smith family was back in New York City, where Sam began working as a chauffeur. As shown in the 1925 New York Census excerpt at top, Sam became a US citizen in 1924 in New York City.

Sarah's citizenship status, however, was not affected by Sam's naturalization, because of the Cable Act of 1922, which separated the citizenship status of spouses. She was a "marital expatriate" - and decided, during World War II, to take steps to regain her US citizenship.

As shown here, Sarah filed Form NH-415, applying to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. She was once again a citizen after taking the oath on February 11, 1944. Sarah was outlived by all five of her children and her husband. Today I'm thinking of her on the anniversary of her marriage in April of 1912 (not 1911, as mistakenly shown on the oath document above).