The document that retroactively recognized a citizenship Constantine had held since age fifteen. US Certificate of Citizenship No. A-165551 (Form N-560), issued January 22, 1947 to Constantine Lazare Jeannopoulos, certifying that he became a US citizen as a minor on July 9, 1931 by virtue of his father Lazaros’s naturalization on that date (Certificate No. 3421529) — a derivative citizenship under Section 339 of the 1940 Nationality Act.
What the certificate records
- Certificate number: A-165551
- Application: 0300-124698 / 0300-10439
- Issued: January 22, 1947 (171st year of US Independence)
- Holder: Constantine Lazare Jeannopoulos — full name, signed in his own hand
- Physical description: Male, age 30, 5’10½”, brown eyes, brown hair, dark complexion, no distinguishing marks, married
- Address: 370 Fort Washington Avenue, New York City (Washington Heights)
- Photograph: Affixed and embossed
- Derivation: Per Section 339 of the 1940 Nationality Act — derivative citizenship through his father’s naturalization
- Effective date of citizenship: July 9, 1931 — when Constantine was a minor (age 15) and Lazaros naturalized
Why this document is consequential
This single certificate resolves three otherwise-conflicting threads in the family record:
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★ Lazaros’s naturalization date — Constantine’s 1947 derivative certificate records his father’s naturalization as July 9, 1931, matching Lazaros’s own 1937 sworn affidavit (Cert #3421529, July 9, 1931). This definitively settles the previous conflict with Constantine’s 1941 SS Excalibur manifest (which had listed September 10, 1928 as Lazaros’s naturalization date) in favor of the 1931 date. The 1928 entry was either an intermediate step (e.g., petition filing) or a clerical error.
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★ Constantine’s US citizenship pre-dates his 1955 Greek deletion by 24 years — The 1955 deletion of Constantine’s Mytilene Μητρώο Αρρένων folio 35 entry cannot have been triggered by US naturalization, since Constantine’s US citizenship had been in force since 1931 (when he was 15). The 1955 deletion was administrative for failure to fulfill Greek military service — not a renunciation of Greek citizenship.
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★ Peter’s jus-sanguinis chain is preserved — Constantine was a Greek citizen at the time of Peter’s birth (October 14, 1943). The US derivative citizenship of 1931 does not affect Greek citizenship under the law of the era; dual citizenship was implicit. For the Greek-citizenship case, this 1947 certificate is the document that proves Constantine acquired US citizenship as a minor — not by his own adult choice — and therefore did not renounce Greek citizenship in the process.
The 370 Fort Washington Avenue address
The certificate lists Constantine’s address as 370 Fort Washington Avenue, NYC. This is two blocks from Lazaros’s 214 Audubon Avenue (Washington Heights) residence at the time of his 1939 death — a Greek diaspora neighborhood. Constantine returned to that area after WWII service ended in 1946. By the late 1940s he had moved to 2540 Cambreleng Ave in the Bronx; by 1951 he was practicing on East 74th Street in Manhattan.
