The Cable Act of 1922
The Cable Act (also called The Married Women’s Independent Nationality Act) was passed by Congress in 1922. Previously, if an American woman married a foreign-born man, she lost her U.S. citizenship. (If an American man married a foreign-born woman, his citizenship was not affected.) The passing of the Cable Act provided that, in part (relevant to my grandma), US-born women married to foreign men who were eligible for naturalization could go through the naturalization process on their own merits; the women’s naturalization would not need to depend on the respective husband’s naturalization process. Polly (my grandmother) married in 1917. She really fell right in between the Expatriation Act of 1907 and the Cable Act of 1922. Vincent did not become naturalized until 1928. I am not sure why my grandmother waited until 1930 to apply for naturalization. Under the 1922 Cable Act, Pauline could have applied for naturalization even without her husband doi...
