I had looked into it a couple years ago and decided I wasn't, because all of my ancestors (who are literally ALL German) immigrated to the US before 1905 and would therefore have lost citizenship automatically. However, I've been doing geneology because my kids are suddenly eligible to become Canadian through their other parent (who is only 50% German) and a helpful woman at a Mormon church taught me how to read more into US Census documents, and I discovered that my mother's great-grandfather listed himself as "alien" through 1920 (he died in 1924). But his daughter would have lost her citizenship when she married my mom's grandfather in 1900.
The details:
Great-great grandfather:
- born in 1834 in Germany (Hesse)
- married in 1869 in Germany, to a German woman, prior to immigrating
- emigrated in 1870 to USA (Nebraska)
- naturalized never, according to his Census records, which I realize would've been self-reported. (I've reached out to the Nebraska state archives, district court, and US Archives at Kansas City to try to verify and thus far have found no records about him.)
Great-grandmother:
- born in USA in 1880
- married an American in 1900 -- I think she would've been German until she married as long as her father was and lost citizenship when she married?
Gandfather:
- born in USA in 1915
Mother:
- born USA in 1949 -- she has quite a bit of dementia and cannot provide any family information.
u/Adorable_Jicama_1607 — 10 days ago
