Mr. Hay to Mr. Lardy.
Washington, August 23, 1901.
Sir: Replying to your note of the 30tb ultimo, I have now the honor to inform you that the attorney-general of the State of New York, under date of the 16th instant, declares it to be his opinion that by section 18 of the domestic regulations law of the State of New York, chapter 272 of the laws of 1896, as amended by chapter 725 of the laws of 1899, “an illegitimate child, whose parents have heretofore intermarried or shall hereafter intermarry, shall thereby become legitimatized and shall become legitimate for all purposes, entitled to all the rights and privileges of a legitimate child; but an estate or an interest vested or trust created before the marriage of a parent of such child shall not be divested or affected by reason of such child being legitimatized.”
Section 1933 of the Revised Statutes of the United States provides that “all children heretofore or hereafter born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States whose fathers were or may be at the time of their birth citizens thereof are declared to be citizens of the United States; but the rights of citizenship shall not descend to children whose fathers have never resided in the United States,” and section 1992 declares all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, to be citizens of the United States.
Assuming that the father of Louis Rover, Leon Jean Rover, who was born in New York, had never renounced his American citizenship acquired by his birth, it is the opinion of the Department that Louis Rover, born in France in 1888 of a French mother, became a citizen of the United States by the subsequent marriage of his parents in 1891, in pursuance of section 18 of the domestic relations law of New York, cited at the beginning of this note.
Accept, etc.,