How I attempted (and failed) to submit perfect documents with my Hungarian citizenship application.
Note: In March of 2023, I took my Hungarian Citizenship Oath. It was a lot of work and dedication to get there, and I know many others are on a similar journey through the Simplified Naturalization Procedure. I'm writing a 10-part series of posts with details of my citizenship process. I hope this will help and inspire others.
See Part 1 ; Part 2 and Part 3.
Along with the certified copy of Anna Solyák's (my great-grandmother) Hungarian birth record (see how I got it here,) I also needed to submit certified and translated birth and marriage records linking me to her.
This seemed like it would be a simple process. I was lucky that all my direct ancestors were married in Lackawanna county in the US state of Pennsylvania. That's also where I was born. And a relative had already done some research and put my great-grandparents' marriage record in the online geneaology databases, so I knew it existed!
But as it is, with ancestors from The Old Country, the paperwork trail was not as clean as I would have liked.
Over the years, my great-grandmother's last name morphed from Solyák to a more Americanized "Saylock." Luckily her marriage certificate was in her original "Old Country" name. However, in what is still a mystery to me, her marriage record showed an incorrect age for her. This must have been due to her inablilty to speak English at the time she was married and perhaps a harried/disinterested court clerk processing her paperwork.
This inconsistency made me nervous, because I wanted a clean paper trail when submitting my citizenship application. So while we were still in the throws of Covid and wearing masks everywhere, I took a trip to the Orphans' Court in Scranton, PA with applications for my ancestors' marriage records, the required fees and a lot of hope.
(You may be thinking the same thing I did: Orphans' Court seems like a strange place for marriage records to be stored. I found out that this branch of the court system was set up to handle estates of deceased people and guardianship of any of minor children. Marriage records can be important in determining this. If you are a legal or history buff and want to read more, this paper: A Brief History of the Pennsylvania Orphans' Court is useful.)
The people who work in the Orphans' Court in Scranton couldn't have been nicer. They were genuinely interested in my Hungarian citizeship process and wanted to help however they could...which started a week and half roller coaster of hope (YAY!) and disappointment (BOO!) for me....
You can see the video of the process here. But I'll give you a rundown here:
At first, it seemed like it might be a simple process to correct my great-grandmother's marriage record. (YAY!) The clerks in the marriage bureau asked me to return with proof of my great-granmother's correct age. So I did, the next day.
Unfortunately, I was then told I'd need a certified English-language translation of my great-grandmother's Hungarian birth certificate. (BOO!) (I tried to give them an informal translation there on the spot. After all, I had been studying Hungarian intensely and knew every word on her birth record!) But of course, they needed something official.
So I went away and quickly found a translator in the US who promised to get me a notarized translation within days. And she did! (YAY!)
I took that document back to the Orphan's Court, and submitted it to a clerk. (YAY!)
Unfortunately the next day, I phoned the clerk and she told me that it was not possible to change my great-grandparent's marriage record in their office, but that I could try getting a lawyer and petitioning the court. (BOO!)
So I gave up on this strategy, and decided instead to submit a written letter with my citizenship application, explaining this disrepency on my great-grandmother's marriage record and hope that the authorities in Hungary would understand the complications that Old Country immigrants to the US faced when dealing with paperwork.
(SPOILER ALERT: the letter worked!)
This letter that I submitted with my citizenship application was just one of the many extra steps I took on my journey. Getting Hungarian citizenship was a process and an honor that I didn't take lightly, so I did everything I could to make it happen.
In my next blog post, I'll outline how I went the extra mile (or kilometer) and then some, on my path to dual citizenship. Subscribe below, so you won't miss a blog post. Thank you!
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