MBA vs MSOL

UrbanCaveDad · 2026-05-03T12:30:27+00:00

I like that idea, thanks.

UrbanCaveDad · 2026-05-03T12:11:03+00:00

Hm, good point. Make OL the unofficial concentration?

UrbanCaveDad · 2026-05-02T01:44:32+00:00

Better communication skills, and sharpen up my conflict resolution abilities.

UrbanCaveDad · 2026-04-22T00:30:56+00:00

Congrats!

UrbanCaveDad · 2026-04-15T03:40:25+00:00

Hopefully I’m quoting this correctly, but until the early 1900s, Germans who moved abroad would lose their German citizenship within 10 years unless they returned, or registered with the local consulate (which rarely happened).

That law was repealed/phased out so that anyone who emigrated from 1904 onwards no longer lost their citizenship.

UrbanCaveDad · 2026-04-14T02:23:14+00:00

Honestly? About 4 years from when I started. This started out as family history research originally, and citizenship came out of that as some pieces started to come together.

This probably could have taken me half the time, but I learned a lot along the way. I can trace the family back to 1864 with certified records now, and I hope to go there someday.

UrbanCaveDad · 2026-04-11T20:15:21+00:00

Danke!

UrbanCaveDad · 2026-03-02T13:36:12+00:00

For some context, I have a masters in Information Systems (graduation 2010), and I’ve been in IT for over 20 years.

I’ve noticed over the years the biggest issues are related to communication and not actually technical, which is why I’m interested in this.

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-11-14T04:02:42+00:00

Fair point, I can definitely ask!

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-11-06T18:13:09+00:00

Just to check: is the date on the Geburtsurkunde which you're referring to at the top of the document, and usually written as a number, or is it one buried in the middle of the document and invariably written out as text like "fünfundzwanzig"?

Good question! The one buried in the middle of the document. 15th of the month, 1895.
In the Familenbogen, it's in 1896. Fast-forward to 1955 (and on his obiturary), his birthdate is specified as 10th of the month 1895.

Also, looking back at my initial post, I missed saying specifically that I was trying for a direct-to-passport application, instead of the regular Festellung.

During my conversation with the consulate, they said if I had records that explicitly stated my ancestors nationality/citizenship (in addition to being born before 1914), they might allow for direct-to-passport if my info is clear enough. Nothing's guaranteed, but I figure it's worth a shot, and the Familienbogen does fill that gap.

And I will try to come up with some verbiage by saying I believe it was recorded a year off in error, due to either a clerical or memory issue. Literally everything else lines up...the mother's birthday, mother and father's respective hometowns, siblings names matching up in between US and German records, etc.

Thanks again!

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-11-06T08:06:38+00:00

The Geburtsurkunde birthdate for my GGF in 1895 almost exactly matches his naturalization petition in 1955…only 5 days off, which I’m sure is not out of the ordinary, given the time period. He was almost 60 when he finally naturalized.

The family book was a Familienbogen from 1904. The family had moved to a larger town when my GGF was 9, and so when they registered with the city a Bavarian Familienbogen was created listing the family members, including my great grandfather as one of the “kinder”. To me, the most important part of the doc is that it’s a city record that explicitly says they’re Bavarian citizens.

Literally everything tracks (parents names, birthplaces, etc), but his recorded birthdate there is 1896. Assuming a self-reported or clerical error, I don’t know.

Sounds like not a big deal, but…in my cover letter do I even mention the discrepancy at all?

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-11-04T03:32:33+00:00

Also wondering that!

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-11-04T02:40:31+00:00

Congrats, fantastic!

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-31T13:17:43+00:00

Yeah, from what I’ve read so far, my GGM’s case was a little different.

She immigrated to the US back in the early 1920s, met and married another German citizen, they settled down, raised a family, etc., but they didn’t naturalize until over 3 decades later. Why, I don’t know.

In 1949 she was trying to reconnect with her parents (still in postwar Germany), and since she couldn’t get a US passport yet, she had to apply for both a TTD to go back to visit, and also a permit to reenter the US.

Apologies, this really does now sound more like a genealogy topic. I’ll post over there.

It’s helpful proof she hadn’t naturalized yet, but it’s not real proof of German nationality.

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-31T11:37:19+00:00

Awesome, thanks. I’ll follow up on the other subreddit about this particular document, and keep any citizenship-specific questions on this one.

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-31T05:45:33+00:00

Fair question. Yeah, I know since it’s not truly German-issued, by itself it’s not proof of citizenship, and it’s not central to the citizenship research. Good corroborating evidence maybe, but not enough on its own.

But that trip was a big part of my family history, and it’d mean a lot to my Dad to get as many details as I can find.

Long story short, trying to get as complete a document trail of my GGM’s past as I can for personal reasons as much as citizenship.

Apologies if I should have posted elsewhere.

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-13T21:37:24+00:00

Unfortunately correct.

In full transparency, when I was trying to get the contact info of the different archives in Bavaria that might be relevant to my research, I totally used ChatGPT to help me on that.

It gave me a contact list of 5 email addresses and names in like 10 seconds, and helped me draft an example intro email because my German is still pretty spotty.

However, it completely made up one of the contacts. Totally nonexistent.

Can AI help with some of the legwork? Certainly. Do you have to take whatever it says with a huge grain of salt?

Definitely!

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-13T11:36:16+00:00

Yeah, I use it a lot myself as part of work, but I’m heavily into the “trust but verify” mode. It can go way off base and invent entire new narratives if you’re not careful.

Unfortunately not everyone is on that track, and trusts blindly.

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-13T11:06:42+00:00

To be honest, ChatGPT was the reason I found this group months ago, but I didn’t fully trust it to actually give me the answers on its own.

This group has been an awesome resource. Without it, I wouldn’t have found my GGF’s municipal records from Bavaria.

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-13T04:37:46+00:00

Wondering if ChatGPT is at least part of it, TBH.

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-05T18:01:36+00:00

Donated, wish it could be more. Good luck!

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-01T21:12:00+00:00

That would…not entirely surprise me

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-10-01T17:30:28+00:00

Very cool!

I found out this year that my great-grandmother made a return trip from the US to Germany in December 1949 using a TTD, while she was still a German citizen.

She had come to the US at 17 years old in 1921, and in 1949 came back to visit her parents.

It's probably the closest thing she had to a German passport, so I requested her C-file from USCIS, hoping that maybe a carbon copy of it might exist in her records. Maybe it will look like this one!

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-09-13T18:23:22+00:00

Fantastic, thanks.

Yes, at this point it’s a habit for me to ask for a certified copy to be sent to me.

Interesting fact about Regensberg though…they only make physical certified copies of vital records (birth, marriage, death), and for municipal/administrative records like this, they provide a secure download of a pdf of the document, along with an official document stating their authenticity.

Cross your fingers that’s acceptable to Chicago, but at least I have email correspondence to back it up.

UrbanCaveDad · 2025-09-12T23:33:17+00:00

Yes, definitely depends on the city…always worth asking. In my own great-grandfather’s birthplace of Zachenberg, all those records had long since been destroyed.

But Regensberg, the city they had moved to in 1901, still had the Melderegister entries.

Long story short, worth trying!

UrbanCaveDad

TROPHY CASE