Good evening ladies and gentlemen ,

i´d like to know whether it is possible to gain thai citizenship if an ancestor of mine has been married with a woman from siam (name of thailand in the 19th. century) or not.

to be more precise: my grand grand... father was married to a woman from siam around 1865 (we know the date, because he was the captain H. Jarck from danmark who founded the oriental hotel in bkk). we still have records about him/the marriage.

what do you think ?

yours sincerely

hfh

As I read it, the current nationality law states that a child born of a Thai citizen, either inside or outside the kingdom, automatically gains that citizenship. Unlike most other country's there doesn't appear to be a clause saying that one must be born on Thai soil to pass on their nationality.

Now, that is the rule, and I suppose if the child of your great grandfather and this siamese lady (presumably your grandfather/grandmother), and then in turn their child (one of your parents) all had Thai birth certificates, then I suppose you could in theory get Thai nationaility.

But, presumably the didn't. So while by my own humble reading of the law says in theory you might be able to, in reality you have probably have very little chance.

But then again, give the Thai embassy in Denmark a call. And if you manage to navigate the bureacracy, then you will be deserving of that little brown book!

i think they did not have thai birth certificates during the time between 1865 and today. a few descendants are living in hamburg/germany. he moved back to that city later. i think everybody between him and me has german/danish certificates. but might be a nice try right ??

hfh

I believe you only qualify for "citizenship by descent" if 1 of your parents is a Thai national.

You may however qualify for a discount in the Somerset Maugham suite.

@penelope: I hope that. i plan to fly over next year, when the big 130 years celebration party is helt... maybe i´ll stay at the oriental, but i don´t think they´ll give me a discount.

it seems, that it might not be too easy to get that small brown booklet. but the fact mentioned above might (or at least i hope) help.

greetz from germany

hfh

ok. found a death certificate of an ancestor which said born in bangkok... might be interesting.

i´ll ask the thai embassy soon, maybe they have an idea !

@penelope: they announced a "special rate" for my stay - whatever that might mean in the oriental hotel

hfh