cyndi@... and SarinaRoffe@...

asked about citizenship and birth certificates for persons born at sea.

I found this section of the immigration and naturalization act that seems to
cover this situation

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86757.pdf

from 1878 to 1934 the law was all children who were born outside the

limits and jurisdiction of the US would be a citizen if their fathers
were citizens at the time of their birth. If the father never resided
in the US, then citizenship would not descend to the child.

So, under this law these children born at sea were not citizens which
explains why SarinaRoffe@... found the naturalization for her
ancestor.

In the other case of cyndi@... since children were often born
at home, and births were not always recorded promptly, those parents
may have just recorded the birth themselves, giving the birthplace as
Maryland. Possible also that this ancestor never needed a birth
certificate until years later. If he applied for a delayed certificate,
and his parents had later become citizens, he could have become a
citizen through that act, so no one would question his statement of
where exactly he was born. Perhaps there actually are naturalization
documents for this ancestor, if he realized at some time that he was not
a citizen.

Hope this helps,
Lisa Lepore
llepore@...
Mendon, MA