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England: Apparently I’m From There

Chloe Biggs

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Until the genealogy project, I had no idea what my country of origin was. I knew I was

most likely European, and to be honest I was hoping I was not from England. England just seems

so vanilla compared to any of the places I could have been from. The only way that I identify

with England is my love for Doctor Who. But of course, my 6th great grandfather was born in

Thornhill, Yorkshire, England and moved to Virginia. However, I kept an open mind as I began

to research the home country of my ancestors.

I discovered my country of origin after my mom used a Cardwell (her maiden name)

lineage book to trace our relatives back to England. She even used this book to trace us back to

King Henry III. I checked, he was one of the kinder Henrys. I have Ancestry.com to thank for

really peaking my interest in my home country. The website creates biographies for your

relatives and reading the one about my 6th great grandfather coming to America made me

wonder what that voyage and life was like for him. It’s not about being from somewhere exotic

or special, it’s about the magic of discovering special connections to your loved ones and

ancestors.

The first thing I researched about England was their flag. They usually fly two flags. The

first is a white flag with the red cross of England’s patron saint, Saint George. The second one is

the Union Jack which is red, white, and blue with Saint George’s cross and another X behind

this. The Union Jack represents the United Kingdom which my resources revealed includes

England, Scotland, Wales, a northern portion of Ireland (​Ravenhill,W.). Secondly, I researched

the national anthem and found that they don’t possess the same national pride as most
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Americans, according to one study (Scheve, C.).​ God Save the Queen​ is the anthem of Great

Britain (the UK), but England doesn't have a separate one. The study states this and and the fact

the the Union Jack is usually flown at English, national sporting events instead of Saint George’s

Cross, that this is a correlation to their lack of identification with their nationality. To learn more

about how to obtain English citizenship, I watched a Youtube video describing the process. First,

you have to meet the following requirements before filling out a 31 page form: you must be able

to speak the English language, be 18 years or older, be of sound mind, and a lot of other specific

things.You also need to have several documents that could be problematic if you were a refugee

(How To). Then you have to pay the application fee of 1238 Euros which is equivalent to

1527.83 US dollars. This is by no means cheap. Naturalization by residency or being the spouse

of a UK citizen is much simpler than this process.

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References:

Ravenhill, W., Atkins, R. C., Frere, S. S., Prestwich, M. C., Spencer, U. M., & Colley, L. J.

(2018, February 18). United Kingdom. Retrieved February 20, 2018, from

https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom

Scheve, C., Beyer M., Ismer, S., Kozłowska, M., & Morawetz. C., (2014.) Emotional

entrainment, national symbols, and identification: A naturalistic study around the men’s

football World Cup. ​Current Sociology​ 62:1, pages 3-23.

How To Apply for British Citizenship 2017 | UK Citizenship. (2017, May 15). Retrieved

February 20, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y498MPYd_Vk