Genealogy Chat

My grandfather was born in England to Russian Polish Immigrants. He was the only person in his family born outside of Russia and Poland. My question is would he be a full Polish Russian or half Polish Russian and half British? Would like to hear your thoughts. Thanks, Kirsten

If he was born in Britain then that surely automatically makes him a British Citizen and able to apply for a British passport, no matter what his parentage. If he had Polish or Russian parents then he would probably also qualify for dual citizenship of either of these countries through them.

Would this make me 1/4 Polish Russian or 1/8 then?

His nationality would be British, but his blood would be Russian Polish!! You are British too, but as you have one grandparent who was Russian Polish blood, your parent would be half Russian Polish blood and you one quarter...... Merry

Thank you. I've so many conflicting opinions on this one. Kirsten

I would think he would have duel nationality, British and Polish-Russan but you never know. By blood he would have been a sum of his parents and so a polish-russian but by birth he would have been English and should be registered in the normal way.

He couldn't possibly be half-British unless one of his parents was British. My husband is Polish through and through by blood alone but British because he was born and registered here So your grandfather would have been British because he was born here. His parents would have remained Russian/Polish unless they applied to become British Nationals. I suspect they would have done so if they intended to remain here in order for their children to go to university or become apprentices and to be entitled to any government aid. My parents in law became 'naturalised' here after the war and I have all their paperwork for that, seals, oaths of allegiance etc. They were given copies of them. I have all their papers too from prewar Poland, from being prisoners of war in Russia, to rejoining the Polish Army in Egypt, their marriage in Palestine , their papers allowing entry to England, a veritable trail of paperwork which followed them around and was their only possession. Sad really. If you know the approx date they came to England you should be able to get a copy of their naturalisation from the Polish Embassy. If you do a search for threads on 'Polish..' in the search box above, you will find a few threads pertaining to finding Polish Rellies if that is your intent. Kat

As he was born here he would not automatically have dual nationality he would have to apply for it through the relevant embassy. That would depend whether they were Russian Poles ie having lived in Russia or Polish Russians coming here from Poland. Do you know where they emigrated from? Several of our friends have dual passports... just to show off really!! :) Kat

The family came to London just before 1901 and they weren't naturalized or anything. We went down to the FRC and someone looked for us, but there was no record of them. The only town we know of is Warsaw, my great great grandmother came from there. The rest were from the Russian Polish borders. My grandfather was born in 1906, so I don't know what would've happened with his citizenship or anything.

Do you have your Ggrandfather and Ggrandmother's on the 1901 census, that at least would give you some info about them, where they were born ie Poland or Russia if not the town, plus occupation , an address and approx ages. You should be able to get your grandfathers birth cert if born 1916, that should give you quite a bit.. If you already have them, what exactly are you looking for or was it just whether your grandfather was half Russian Polish and half British as in the original and nothing more? I am surprised that there is no record of their entry into Britain, have you tried the Embassies they may have records.