What Country were my ancestors born in?

Question

My Great grandfather was born in what is NOW New Mexico in 1911. New Mexico didn't become a state until 1912 Was he born a United State citizen? and what about his parents who was born in Abt 1890, what country were they born in and were they Citizens of the United States?

Answer 1

Assuming they were all born in the same place, then they are considered residents of the New Mexico territory and had no "citizenship" until the land became a state. But the land was an American territory after it passed from the Mexicans to the US. Part of it also belonged to Texas for a little while, so it's possible they were considered Texans during that time (Texas was an independent republic before becoming a state).  They got "citizenship" the day the land entered the Union.

You don't mention their ethnic heritage, but they could be ethnically Native or Mexican. They could descend from settlers to the region or Confederates escaping the Civil War. If they were born in New Mexico before it became a state, they weren't born in any country at all. They were simply settlers or natives in an American territory.

Answer 2

they were born in a territory of the US so theyre a US citizen

Answer 3

Yep! that's it; they ARE (WERE) citizens.

To add one to what Ted said: One of my ancestors lived in 3 states and 4 counties, yet never moved once!

Politics!

Answer 4

Up until a decade or two ago, people who lived in territories couldn't vote for president and didn't have senators or representatives speaking for them in congress. Today they can vote for president but still don't have congressmen or congresswomen.  That made them second-class citizens, but they were still citizens. They could be drafted, they had to pay taxes and they used the US Post Office. If they needed a passport, the USA issued them one.

If you want to be accurate, you enter the locations they were born, married and died in as "Township 14, Sagebrush County, New Mexico Territory (Now New Mexico)", the way some of us enter our hillbilly ancestors as born in "Monroe County, VA (Now WV)"

Answer 5

New Mexico became a territory of the United States in 1850, so its citizens became citizens of the United States at that time, even though New Mexico didn't become a state to 1912.  Similarly, anyone born in the present-day US territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands are all American citizens as well.