In an earlier commentary, I referred to certain categories of ancestral Virgin Islanders who were placed at a disadvantage by the 1948 British Nationality Act. Among these were illegitimate children; legitimate children whose fathers were citizens of another country and the women who married them; women who could not pass on citizenship by descent to their children born in a foreign country; and men and women who became American citizens when the Danish West Indies became the United States Virgin Islands. Each category suffered its own disadvantage, but some more so than others.
For example, children born illegitimate in the VI were not automatically citizens of the United Kingdom and colonies, although both parents may have had that status. They had to be registered, and thereby gained citizenship by registration, according to my reading of the act. With hindsight, we might ask why this information was not generally known. I imagine that those who were so affected would have discovered it when they had to apply for a passport.
Unfair for women, children
Then there were those female ancestral Virgin Islanders who married foreigners and could not pass on citizenship to their children because it could only be passed on through the male line. Their children, born in the VI, did not automatically become citizens if their alien husbands had not gone through a process of becoming citizens. As a result, these children would have to be registered or naturalised, depending on the individual circumstances. It would have been useful to the parents if this information would have been generally known.
It follows that children who are registered or naturalised would not have the same status as children who were citizens by birth, although all would be ancestral Virgin Islanders. Clearly, in this case the law discriminated against women and their children.
In another situation, female ancestral Virgin Islanders could not pass on citizenship by descent to their children born outside of the VI. Only through the male line could children acquire citizenship by descent.
In this case such children could only become citizens through registration or naturalisation, depending on their individual circumstances. Moreover, they had to be living in the VI. This was not generally known. I discovered it by chance, while doing research on behalf of a lady who was born in the Dominican Republic, of a mother who was born in St. Thomas, of a father who was born in Anegada. I learned that she was not entitled to a VI passport, although she had descended from an ancestral Virgin Islander.
US citizenship
Finally, in the context of this commentary, there were those ancestral Virgin Islanders who became American citizens without even realising what the long-term consequences might be for their children and grandchildren. After 1917, Virgin Islanders continued to go back and forth between the VI and the USVI, because that is where they could earn a living. Those who had citizenship helped others to get green cards eventually. Their economic survival determined their priorities. I don’t imagine that the ways in which the British Nationality Act affected them would have been known or regarded, although its impact was far-reaching, politically speaking. Belated efforts to deal with that impact ushered in the belongers legislation, as I understand it.