Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

Allow me to introduce myself.  I live in Canada, where I have a legal services business and also teach as a professor in a legal studies program.  Since about 2010, I have been greatly interested in genealogy.  In terms of my ancestry, I am what one would call a "Heinz 57," with ancestors from all over (not uncommon in North America).  But, about 5/8 of my ancestors can be traced back to the original settlers of New France.

The reason for making this blog is that, as a result of my interest in genealogy and law, I discovered that a) I am of partial Sephardic Jewish ancestry; and b) Spain and Portugal recently passed laws (by recently, I mean 2015) allowing people with Sephardic Jewish ancestry to apply for the citizenship that their ancestors were deprived of.  In the summer of 2019, I visited Spain and lodged an application for Spanish citizenship, which was approved by a notario and, barring any unforeseen events, will be processed and approved by the appropriate Spanish ministries by about 2021.

Because I have received a number of questions about the process to apply for citizenship, I decided to make a blog addressing some of the more common questions I receive so that I can refer people to pre-written answers.  Due to the time-limited nature of the Spanish citizenship law, I expect to offer information in the future about acquiring Portuguese citizenship based on Sephardic ancestry.  In the meantime, I hope that readers find utility in at least some of the blog entries that I will make.  Thank you for visiting my blog!

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