Of Ancestry and Certificates

 After all these years, I have the standard answer down pat to the question -"Why is your surname like this if your father is Chinese?"

So I carry my mom's surname as my own because in citizenship papers, I am an illegitimate child (no father in birth certificate) even though I have a very present father who was legally married to my mom 4 years before I was born. 

My siblings who were born 12 and more years before me also have the same additional page in their birth certificate because my father was not yet a naturalized citizen when they were born. My parents were already married prior to them being born but not in a church which could legally register marriages in the country (how crazy is that?!).

This was all kind of abstract to me and simply matter-of-fact as I was growing up until last night, when, for some reason, I googled about the Citizenship in my country in Wikipedia. 

My eyes were suddenly opened to the reality that my parents and my siblings faced during their time. When they were all born, the laws on citizenship were not yet amended with what I am familiar with at present.

So the law states that because our father was a foreigner (even though he was born in the same country as my mother), my mother's citizenship can only be passed to my siblings if they eventually choose to by that time they are 18. I am not sure what their citizenship would have been prior to adulthood if my parents did follow that path. The only results I found were "inchoate" citizenship, whatever that means. 

Everything makes so much sense now. So my parents chose, I'm sure with the advice of the elders and community, to register all of my 4 siblings as fatherless so that they will be automatically granted natural-born citizenship which is similar to my mother's citizenship. Also, since my parents' marriage was not officially registered in government records, then technically, my siblings were illegitimate in the eyes of the law, but not in the eyes of  God. 

This is all just so risky and crazy to me right now but I think it's only because I have the privilege of amended laws, unlike my siblings and parents. I'm an almost post-revolution baby living in the spoils of the victors of war. 

Anyhow, all of my cousins have a similar dilemma, too. The only difference is that by the time my uncles were naturalized citizens, they granted legitimacy to their succeeding children. I did not receive that and my rationale is so that I would have the same surnames as my siblings. Otherwise, I'll be like my cousins who have a different surname than their older siblings. 

When I search for my father's name in the internet, it shows up under the list of naturalized citizens of the country. As a naturalized citizen, he can enjoy the same benefits as a natural-born citizen such as passing of citizenship to children, legally doing business in the country, and legally owning property which I know are all very very important to my dad in his lifetime.

I just wanted to write it a down now for posterity. Xx