Determining mother's citizenship for UKM

[SonyaMuno]

Hi everyone,

We really need some guidance.

My husband's mother (now deceased) was a British citizen, born in England in the 1930s to British parents. We have ordered a copy of her birth certificate.

She married and emigrated to the US in the 1950s. We have a copy of a passenger manifest (though we're not sure who this husband was -- family lore says she was a war bride (a bit late!), so we presume an American in some branch of the armed forces. Doesn't seem relevant, though).

We know she obtained a Social Security card (we have ordered a copy of her application), but we do not know if she was naturalized as an American citizen -- or if this even matters.

She divorced and married again in the 1960s. My husband was born in the US in the 1970s, and he is an American citizen. We can obtain their marriage license and his birth certificate.

It seems like my husband has a straightforward claim to citzenship by descent except for the question of whether his mother was still a British citizen at the time of his birth.

My questions are:

(1) Does it matter?

(2) Does anyone have any idea where to look for information regarding her citizenship status?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[CR001]

USA allows dual nationality as far as I am aware.

You could try the National Archives to check for information about mother's nationality or renunciation of it (which she would have had to do, it is not automatic).

[SonyaMuno]

Thank you for the suggestion.

After poking around the National Archive (US) and looking for naturalization records via Ancestry.com, I finally stumbled on the National Archives (UK). I shook my fist at bureaucracy and Google's localized search results for a moment, and then submitted a look up request for an R6 certificate (renunciation of British citzenship) in the relevant years.

They wrote back (very promptly!): We have a name index to duplicate certificates of renunciation of British citizenship from 1949 - 1982 (R6 certificates) in our custody in the series of records HO 334. I have searched on your behalf but unfortunately I could find no entry for [husband's mother].

Can anyone confirm if we've done our due diligence here...? Is there something else we can look for or can we honestly say that, to the best of our knowledge, she was a British citizen at the time of my husband's birth?

Thanks!

[CR001]

Do you or partner have her British passport or a copy of it?

[SonyaMuno]

We don't. My husband asked his father if he happens to have any of her old papers, but she passed on some time ago. It might just be gone.

Is this a firm requirement? Her parents and grandparents were British -- that whole side of the family is still in England, in fact -- so we can provide a lot of vital records.