“Did I strip citizenship from someone?”
I don’t see what’s different from someone who’s born in America and you, to be honest. If where a person’s parents were from matters, then I don’t see why we don’t have a Queen, since she has a better pedigree than any of us.
Citizens are just that, citizens. If we’re going to go back and do the European model (which doesn’t work), and exclude children of parents born abroad, (and their children, etc, etc, so on and so forth), we can get right back to the old model where some persons are persons and other people are more than persons.
Or we could just go by the 14th which says that all are equal in America. Your choice.
“The early 1900s had immigrants ~ but not as many as you might imagine”
You’re quite wrong about that. It only takes 1 out of 7 to have a great grandparent from abroad. If you have one out of 10 immigrate (as did in the massive immigration wave from europe, it’s easy to see how almost everyone would have at least one relative from abroad.
“Then we had the Great Depression and it went away almost entirely.”
But then they stayed. Where do you think names like New Braunfels come from?
“It may seem strange to you but there are vast stretches of America where people have to count back 5 or 6 generations to find an ancestor who immigrated here. I even know some who count back more than 10 generations to get to an immigrant.”
Not strange at all that you would know a few. I grew up with plenty of Germans and Dutch and English, and Irish and Scotch and Norwegians and even a few Italians and Portuguese. Every single one had at least one ancestor who came from somewhere else.
The math just isn’t in your favor. Sorry. Again, try posting a vanity and poll FReepers.
As a practical matter it takes you a good 10 generations to have anyone in your line eligible for the Society of Cincinatti. The biggy is one of the two 16th century societies ~
BTW, those Italian and Greek guys didn't, for the most part, run off with native born women ~ they went back home to find women. That's why you can't use the 1 out of 7 or 1 out of 10 thing as a universal condition ~ quite common for first generation people to stick together