Where do you say you were born if your country is no more?

In My Humble Opinion
41

[QUOTE=Roland Orzabal]
Color me confused about this whole debate. I was born in Plattsburgh, New York. If the denizens of neighboring Keeseville decided to rise up and attack Plattsburgh with an atomic weapon, thereby wiping it (and themselves) off the map, that wouldn’t change the fact that I was born there.
[/QUOTE]

But if Keeseville survived and incorporated the smoldering remains of Plattsburgh, would you be happy that everyone for the rest of your life identifies you as one of those accursed Keesevillians?

42

[QUOTE=Koxinga]
But if Keeseville survived and incorporated the smoldering remains of Plattsburgh, would you be happy that everyone for the rest of your life identifies you as one of those accursed Keesevillians?
[/QUOTE]
My point exactly. :slight_smile:

43

You’re not making sense. If you have a point to make, could you pls come out and make it? Feigning “confusion” is not good board form, old bean, especially when it does nothing to clarify whatever the h*ll it is you’re talking about.

44

[QUOTE=Nava]
A bf of mine was born in Kingston, Jamaica.

Uh, no. Kingston, UK. Jamaica wasn’t independent back then.
[/QUOTE]

That doesn’t make it part of the UK though. Call it a “former British colony” if you like. But colonies are not part of the colonising country.

45

The country still exists but my son’s best friend, and his parents, say that they are Burmese from Burma.

46

A friend and I are having a race to see who is the first person to visit 100 foreign countries. We are having a disagreement about this very question. Years ago I visited the Soviet Union. While there I visited parts of the country which, since the breakup, have become Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, and Uzbekistan. Should I get credit for one country or six?

47

[QUOTE=Ronald C. Semone]
A friend and I are having a race to see who is the first person to visit 100 foreign countries. We are having a disagreement about this very question. Years ago I visited the Soviet Union. While there I visited parts of the country which, since the breakup, have become Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, and Uzbekistan. Should I get credit for one country or six?
[/QUOTE]
Six.

48

[QUOTE=Koxinga]
You’re not making sense. If you have a point to make, could you pls come out and make it? Feigning “confusion” is not good board form, old bean, especially when it does nothing to clarify whatever the h*ll it is you’re talking about.
[/QUOTE]
Who, me? I figured from your lighthearted reply that you understood my post and were making a joke, and responded in kind. Sorry for any confusion.

My point: the place you were born doesn’t change because someone renamed it a few years down the road. Hence the whole “you can’t retroactively have been born somewhere” thing. Was my post truly not clear about that?

49

Six. The precedent is birding. When a species is split, those birders who have documentation of having seen both birds previously may count both.

50

[QUOTE=Roland Orzabal]
Who, me? I figured from your lighthearted reply that you understood my post and were making a joke, and responded in kind. Sorry for any confusion.

My point: the place you were born doesn’t change because someone renamed it a few years down the road. Hence the whole “you can’t retroactively have been born somewhere” thing. Was my post truly not clear about that?
[/QUOTE]

I acted like a bit of a jerk, and I’m sorry. Bad time at work, but that’s no excuse.

Catch you all later.

Koxinga

51

I’m inconsistent depending on who’s asking.

If someone asks “Where are your ancestors from?” I’ll tell them “(Other places) and Poland”. The reason I do this is because most people are more familiar with Poland than Prussia.

By the same token, if asked where my ancestors settled when they first came to Australia, I’d say North Melbourne and Bendigo even though those places were known as Hotham and Sandhurst in the time period that my ancestors settled there. Few people seem to know the old names for those cities, and it gives them all the information they need without requiring further explanation. I’d probably use the original place names if a fellow genealogist asked me because they’d be more likely to know what I was talking about.

An entry in my family tree could look like this:
Children of Emily Smith and William Jones

  • Henry Jones b. 1 Jan 1888 at 1 Main Street, Sandhurst, Victoria, Australia
  • Thomas Jones b. 3 Feb 1890 at 1 Main Street, Sandhurst, Victoria, Australia
  • Sarah Jones b. 5 Mar 1892 at 1 Main Street, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
    This is because I record the information as it appears on the birth certificate.
52

[QUOTE=China Guy]
Interestingly, I wonder what is used on their US passport, which lists country of birth? Would it be Czechoslovakia or would some bureaucrat in INS look up your village and decide if it was Czech or Slovakian?
[/QUOTE]

Cannot answer your question for US passports, but in my wife’s Swedish passport it says Place of Birth: Moscow, The Soviet Union.

I believe they add the word “former” on some paperwork.

If asked in which country she is from she would probably say Russia.