Ignoring all birth certificates, which is your closest ancestor who can prove American citizenship?
None. We’re all from Canada, or going farther back, the British Isles.
My paternal grandmother’s parents emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland in the late 1890s. I would imagine that they had naturalization paperwork (and that’s how I voted), but I’ve never seen that paperwork; they had been dead for decades before I was born.
At the other extreme, my maternal grandmother did a lot of research on our family tree; portions of that tree came to the colonies in the early 17th century.
Why are all the poll options about naturalization documents? Are you just asking when our most recent relative became a naturalized US citizen? Because many people could just present a US passport as proof of US citizenship.
My suspicion is that the OP is trying to get at (and the question is a bit oddly worded in that way) “how far back in your family is the most recent immigrant / naturalized U.S. citizen.”
Many people get their American passport by using their birth certificate as the proof of citizenship. I want to see how many Americans have documentation completely independent of their birth certificate (and their ancestors’ birth certificates).
For example, mine ancestor who most recently immigrated came over about 1850. It’s possible they were officially naturalized, but wouldn’t have been unusual to not be. All of their descendants simply relied on their birth certificates.
Yes, this question was prompted by recent news, but I intend a more IMHO rather that political discussion.
More complicated question than it looks. Even if we’re ignoring birth certificates what about passports and such. I’m clearly identified as an American citizen there. I’d also argue that it’s more authoritative than a birth certificate as it has a picture and my birth certificate just prove that someone attests that a baby was born and hung with the name I’m currently using.
If it’s immigration status? Hmm. My stepmother is from Lyon but a naturalized citizen. My step brothers were born while she had her French citizenship so they have documentation about having French representation and American citizenship somewhere. They were born in Los Angeles while she had her French Citizenship and dad is from Louisiana and is an American citizen. It’s complicated.
Beyond that? God alone knows. My aunt Peggy - dead now - was a Cuban emigree who’s parents fled with her as a child when Castro came to power. But I don’t know what documentation they brought with her. She was a naturalized citizen, though.
My former step-father was an Iranian national who was over here in LA studying engineering at USC (of course) when things went south in Iran - and for his family - and found himself over here permanently and eventually became a citizen. For him there’s no going back ever.
Further back than that it becomes increasingly cloudy. My mom’s family has been over since the 1700s and my dad’s earliest known relative in the new world was a transportee who ended up in Virginia the hard way in the 1600s.
I didn’t vote in the poll because I don’t understand how the OP’s question jibes with the poll choices.
I have a current, valid passport. My mother also had a passport. My father had military records that attest to his citizenship status.
One of my grandfathers was not born a citizen. He came to this country as a young child. I vaguely recall seeing some kind of affidavit attesting to his citizenship. As far as I have been able to tell, he is not specifically named on any official government naturalization document. It was explained to me that at that time (circa 1905) that wives and children became citizens when the father of the family was naturalized, but they were not named separately in the documentation. My great-grandfather did have naturalization papers in his own name.
In the old days you didn’t need “naturalization papers”. You could just move here.
Not to fight the hypothetical or anything but even today, there are alternatives to using a birth certificate for getting a US passport. There are still people who either never had one or whose birth certificate was long lost.
My grandfather came over from Czechoslovakia in the 1920s when he was 15; I got a printout of his name on the ship’s manifest for my Dad one Christmas. Thing is, I don’t think there ever was a “naturalization”. He came through Ellis Island, told them he was going to stay with his uncle in Texas (which was, I believe, a lie), and that was pretty much it. My dad was a home-birth in the 1930s, and I’m not sure he even has a birth certificate. I have one deceased older half-brother and an older brother who have US birth certificates, and I guess we’re the first.
My mom’s great-great grandfather emigrated to Minnesota from Germany in the 1880s, I know nothing about the processes he went through. I don’t know anything about my mother’s father’s family.
My ancestors were here before there was a United States.
That’s what I was going to say. My geneology is far from complete, but the ancestors for which I know dates of immigration predate the colonies becoming the US.
My dad’s parents emigrated from Poland and became citizens at some point - not sure when, tho it was after WWI - my grandfather was went into the Army but they sent him home since he wasn’t a citizen yet.
I have multiple great x 5 grandparents who were in the United States prior to the Revolutionary War and several who faught in it.
However you view what Trump said, how on earth are you inferring that birth in the U.S. would not generally make you a citizen? If this is supposed to be a reductio ad absurdum of Trump, you will have to explain further.
So far in my geneology searches, we haven’t found any ancestors who were not here before the US was the US. That is to say, the ones that immigrated, did so before 1776. Mostly from England, Ireland, and Scotland.
Mom’s side has been mucking about these shores since Jamestown. Grandparents on Dad’s side came down from Canada.
If the documentation is not based off in any way on birth certificates, yours or any ancestors’, then I’d count it.
Then those’d count.
That’d make things easier, since Congress passed naturalization acts to grant citizenship to many native groups.
It’s not. My question was prompted by the unindicted co-conspirator, but not directly related, as you note.
My dad’s parents both came to the US from Calabria, Italy as children around 1912 or so. I have my grandma’s naturalization certificate. She didn’t get it until the 50’s. They have her description down as “dark-skinned”.