--- title: Complicated Naturalizations description: How can a person born in Puerto Rico be considered a citizen of Denmark? Genealogist Christopher Child investigates a complex web of history and politics to explain one family's story. image: https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/puerto-rico-map.jpg --- # [Vita Brevis A resource for family history from AmericanAncestors.org](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # Complicated Naturalizations [March 03, 2025](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/complicated-naturalizations) [Case Studies](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/case-studies), [American History](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/american-history), [Geopolitics](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/geopolitics), [Research stories](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-stories) [Christopher C. Child](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/cchild) *![puerto-rico-map](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hs-fs/hubfs/puerto-rico-map.jpg?width=3075&height=1267&name=puerto-rico-map.jpg)1897 map of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Matthews-Northrup Company (via Wikimedia Commons)* One “employment perk” at American Ancestors is a complementary consultation with one of our genealogists, and every now and then I get paired with a colleague for such purposes. Recently, I worked with Researcher Irene Garcia on her ancestry from Puerto Rico, as I have worked on the Puerto Rican ancestry of several family members and friends. Irene and I were able to make a lot of progress on her ancestry on both sides of her family. She has ancestors in Puerto Rico over many generations, and some earlier ancestors from Venezuela, Spain, and Corsica, including a possible descent from Christopher Columbus and pre-unification Spanish monarchs. Confirming all of that will take more time! However, the most intriguing document we found during Irene’s consultation was a 1917 U.S. naturalization document for her great-great-grandfather Oscar Federico Bravo González (1882-1964) of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. ![naturalization record](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfb9jZOJ66rCy2UFlqIR2J3qz0NNXZOIr4Dcz7ius83U4GNSjiu7E5r03Kqd_eGOBhu6DOAaIh8QSsJ0AMlcDPieUDhWsSyQ8ZOmu5SbAlZRCYKPsOeTcaDxFT1PTLV02jLqv2N1_MR1NHcR0MBpUzen4_Ck_147OMAE7DVfoduh3DS6-iSnZk?key=YcLHy6XdKvcwVNdCGJpB3tkN) We were led to this document by a leaf hint on Ancestry for Irene’s great-grandfather (and Oscar’s son) Waldemar Bravo Monagas (1911-1991). This document also naturalized Oscar’s wife and children—at the time, even if Oscar’s wife was considered a U.S. citizen, [marrying a non-citizen male](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/02/an-alien-and-an-alias) would have stripped her of her citizenship. However, Oscar, his wife, and their five children were all born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, and this document is dated 6 July 1917—four months after the [Jones Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones%E2%80%93Shafroth_Act), which I had thought made all Puerto Ricans citizens of the United States. Not exactly! I was led to a very [informative article](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/323047415.pdf) on the complicated nature of citizenship of Puerto Ricans during their time as a Spanish colony and after they became a territory of the United States. Before the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico on 25 July 1898, “there were at least four different categories of person who were considered to be ‘Puerto Ricans’ by the islanders themselves: 1. Persons born in Puerto Rico or Puerto Rican of Spanish ancestry who were subjects of the Spanish Crown and citizens of Spain under the Spanish constitution; 2. Persons born in Puerto Rico of non-Spanish ancestry who were subjects of a foreign state and citizens thereof, and who were domiciled in Puerto Rico pursuant to the Royal Charter of 1816, and thereby subject to the Crown of Spain; 3. Persons born outside of Puerto Rico in a country other than Spain, who were subjects and citizens of that state, and were domiciled in Puerto Rico pursuant to the terms of the Royal Charter of 1816, and thereby subject to the Crown of Spain; 4. Persons born in Spain, who were Spanish citizens and subjects, and were Spanish citizens and subjects, and who were domiciled in Puerto Rico.” Under the Royal Charter of 1816, foreign nationals were encouraged to migrate to the island of Puerto Rico, where they could hold land and establish domicile without losing their rights of citizenship in their state of origin, nor having to swear allegiance to the Spanish crown. Such foreign subjects could request Spanish citizenship after five years, though this was not required for continued domiciliation in Puerto Rico. The Treaty of Paris, signed on 10 December 1898, ended the Spanish American war and annexed Puerto Rico to the United States. It also saw the establishment of four different kinds of dwellers on the island: 1. Spanish citizens; 2. United States citizens; 3. other foreign citizens; and 4. natives of Puerto Rico without any citizenship whatsoever recognized under international law or even United States municipal law.   The Foraker Act of 1899 established U.S. citizenship to those born in Puerto Rico after 11 April 1899, and local laws also established the class “Puerto Rican citizenship” (not necessarily inclusive of U.S. citizenship). The Jones Act of 1917 made most Puerto Rican citizens also citizens of the United States, but “people who had renounced foreign nationality and were previously Puerto Rican under local law, became stateless under the terms of the Jones Act.” There are numerous other complicated factors regarding this issue of citizenship of residents of Puerto Rico in the 19th and early 20th centuries, so please refer to this referenced article for more information.1 So, with that background, why was Oscar Bravo applying to be a United States citizen? The naturalization record notes that he began the process to become a U.S. citizen in 1900, right after the U.S. annexed Puerto Rico, and that he renounced any allegiance to Christian X, King of Denmark. The record notes that while Oscar was born in 1882 in Mayagüez (as was his mother), his “alien parent my father Luis Bravo Pardo now deceased was a subject of Christian X, King of Denmark.” ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfUYyiGLnvZqaYrjHihP-pGZTAI_-pK7ivTlGhIEl1yR0PSrCpie4v_jH7MahHlaP8jOSIUCx7w6Enn_-rnS_Gte4bQdH8DeD3NuvDT3KGu7cCS2FSRSjyTTVTOYXvcJq0LyZ5JXEEgagZXFabk49aniTHQplPQcaOWUEGc7OV76uATHGAHiQ?key=YcLHy6XdKvcwVNdCGJpB3tkN) *The Portuguese synagogue Nevah Shalom in Altona, dedicated in 1771, closed in 1882, demolished in 1940 (via Wikimedia Commons)* Oscar’s father [Isaac Ludwig Solomon Bravo](https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJH-3JSS) was born on 9 August 1836 in Altona, Hamburg. Altona was part of Denmark beginning in 1640, then became part of Prussia in 1864, and later Germany in 1871. Isaac Ludwig Solomon Bravo was from a [Jewish family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Jewish_community_in_Hamburg) with [earlier ancestors](https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/L233-GDN) in the Netherlands, Curaçao, England, Spain, and Portugal. He arrived in Puerto Rico in the 1850s and took the “Spanishized” name of Luis Bravo Pardo (Pardo being his mother’s surname). Luis and his wife María de Los Santos González Izquierdo (1839-1908) had thirteen children together between 1860 and 1888, all born in Mayagüez,  where Luis died in 1906. At the time of Oscar’s birth in 1882, Altona was no longer a part of Denmark, but Oscar was still a Danish citizen at birth, as was his wife Rudesinda Rosario Monagas upon their marriage in 1905, and their five children born between 1906 and 1916. Had Rudesinda not married Oscar, she would have become a U.S. citizen by virtue of the Jones Act of 1917. So, in the end: this family of seven all became U.S. citizens by right of naturalization in 1917, after having maintained Danish citizenship since birth by virtue of their ancestor’s birth in a town that had not been part of Denmark for fifty years, with most of the rest of their ancestry having been in Puerto Rico for generations! [**Free Video: Applying for Dual Citizenship by Descent** ](https://www.americanancestors.org/video-library/applying-dual-citizenship-descent)While most countries base citizenship on place of birth, parentage, and marriage, some countries also offer citizenship by descent—meaning if you have ancestors who were citizens of that country two, three, or even four generations back, you might qualify for dual citizenship! [Watch Now](https://www.americanancestors.org/video-library/applying-dual-citizenship-descent) **Notes** 1 John L.A. de Passalacqua, “The Involuntary Loss of United States Citizenship of Puerto Ricans upon Accession to Independence by Puerto Rico,” *Denver Journal of International Law & Policy* 19, no. 1 (May 2020): 139-161. ### Share this: - [mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/complicated-naturalizations](mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/complicated-naturalizations) - - - More - - ![Christopher C. Child](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Chris_Child_Jan25.jpg) ## About Christopher C. Child Chris Child has worked for various departments at American Ancestors since 1997 and became a full-time employee in July 2003. He has been a member of American Ancestors since the age of eleven. He has written several articles in American Ancestors, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, and The Mayflower Descendant. He is the co-editor of The Ancestry of Catherine Middleton (American Ancestors, 2011), co-author of The Descendants of Judge John Lowell of Newburyport, Massachusetts (Newbury Street Press, 2011) and Ancestors and Descendants of George Rufus and Alice Nelson Pratt (Newbury Street Press, 2013), and author of The Nelson Family of Rowley, Massachusetts (Newbury Street Press, 2014). Chris holds a B.A. in history from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Areas of expertise: Southern New England, especially Connecticut; New York; ancestry of notable figures, especially presidents; genetics and genealogy; African-American and Native-American genealogy, 19th and 20th Century research, westward migrations out of New England, and applying to hereditary societies. Chris has lectured on these topics and edits the genetics and genealogy column for American Ancestors.[View all posts by Christopher C. 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