If you’ll post a message on the Ancestry Comments Board:

http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancsite/mb.ashx

Please be as specific as possible- and a screen shot of how you fill out the search form would help- I’ll try to assist.

Why does my search give me so many names to search through?

slprimmer

After 1907, marriage determined a woman’s nationality status completely. Under the act of March 2, 1907, all women acquired their husband’s nationality upon any marriage occurring after that date. This changed nothing for immigrant women, but U.S.-born citizen women could now lose their citizenship by any marriage to any alien. Most of these women subsequently regained their U.S. citizenship when their husbands naturalized. However, those who married Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, or other men racially ineligible to naturalize forfeited their U.S. citizenship. Similarly, many former U.S. citizen women found themselves married to men who were ineligible to citizenship for some other reason or who simply refused to naturalize. Because the courts held that a husband’s nationality would always determine that of the wife, a married woman could not legally file for naturalization.(6)

Happily, Congress was at work and on September 22, 1922, passed the Married Women’s Act, also known as the Cable Act. This 1922 law finally gave each woman a nationality of her own. No marriage since that date has granted U.S. citizenship to any alien woman nor taken it from any U.S.-born women who married an alien eligible to naturalization.(11) Under the new law women became eligible to naturalize on (almost) the same terms as men. The only difference concerned those women whose husbands had already naturalized. If her husband was a citizen, the wife did not need to file a declaration of intention. She could initiate naturalization proceedings with a petition alone (one-paper naturalization). A woman whose husband remained an alien had to start at the beginning, with a declaration of intention. It is important to note that women who lost citizenship by marriage and regained it under Cable Act naturalization provisions could file in any naturalization court–regardless of her residence.(12)

So when searching Citizenship and naturalization records, do not overlook any female relatives who may fit the above facts. (I found one and it was full of great information!!!)
Virginia

Penny,
I’m probably not the best person to answer you question, but I’ll see if I can find someone with some ideas. Are you looking for arrivals in Germany or the U.S.?

Carol,
Good point. So much to say about these collections, so little space. Glad you like them.