I had to really think about the answer to this week's question from Randy Seaver for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. It wasn't what what came to mind first.
Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.
1. What was your best genealogy research achievement this past month? Tell us about it — what you achieved, and how does it affect your 2024 goals?
2. Tell us about your recent achievement in a comment on this post or in a Facebook post. Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.
When Randy posed his question, he almost certainly meant research on one's own family. And I actually did research on my own family this past month and accomplished quite a bit!
But I think my best research achievement wasn't on my own family. It was on the family of someone I'm working with on acquiring dual citizenship.
That person has an Italian ancestor through whom he is eligible for dual citizenship, and that has been the focus of the research and the planning for the application. That's what he asked me to work on.
There's no problem with his eligibility. It's very clear he can apply through that ancestor. It's a great-grandfather, which is three generations back, and that requires three generations of documentation and all the associated bureaucratic processes associated with that. Plus needing to make an appointment to go to the consulate in person, which apparently at this time is at least two to three years out. If you can actually manage to make an appointment, which he hasn't been able to do after weeks of trying.
And then last week he told me that his mother, whom I had already known was born in Germany but had not verified what her citizenship was, immigrated to the United States under a German passport, after he was born.
Well, guess what? That makes him eligible for German dual citizenship. Only one generation back, and only one generation of documentation. Fewer documents, less bureaucracy. Can be accomplished in weeks or months, not years. Much more straightforward.
That's a far more important achievement than verifying the birth and marriage dates of a few dozen of my British cousins.
It doesn't have anything to do with my planned research goals for 2024, though.
At some point over the past murfle-murfle years that I've been working on my family's genealogy, it seemed like a good idea to split up the branches into separate trees. I have recently come to my senses about that, so now I'm trying to put them all back together. It's a bit... challenging. Sort of like having many sections of the same jigsaw puzzle in various stages of completion on various tables in different rooms.
ReplyDeleteI'm also trying to solve a family "mystery" about an ancestor's parents and I may have found a clue, so I'm counting that as a proto-achievement. :)
Congrats on helping the person with the dual citizenship quest!
Putting all the separate trees back together into one tree will certainly count as a major achievement. And hooray for the proto-achievement, too!
DeleteAcquiring dual citizenship is becoming much more common nowadays. I think I qualify for Slovakian citizenship, too, but have never pursued it. Kudos for helping someone else.
ReplyDeleteI think you're the first person I've heard of who qualifies for Slovakian citizenship. Why not pursue it?
DeleteWow, good outcome to this quest and an easier path to the goal. Now back to your 2024 research plans!
ReplyDeleteHeaven knows I need to get back on track!
DeleteI know about the trials and tribulations of Italian dual-citizenship. Many people write to the Contra Costa County Historical Society for certify copies of Italian naturalizations. We have the original copies and they are easier to get than from USNIS. But cool, to discover a German connection.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize there were that many Italians who naturalized in Contra Costa County. That's useful to remember! And I was surprised how straightforward German can be.
DeleteThink of all the fishing communities along the straits from Richmond to Antioch. Lots of Italian immigrants.
DeleteGood point, thank you!
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