I have all my great grandfather’s documents and would like to know if I can apply for Spanish citizenship without residing in Spain first. I wasn’t sure if the ley memoria allows great granddaughters as well or just simply granddaughters.

Any information about this would be greatly appreciated!!

I tried doing it through my grandfather but the civil registry in Spain could not find his birth certificate..

:-(

Please help!!!! Thank you!!!!

Amanda

I have all my great grandfather’s documents and would like to know if I can apply for Spanish citizenship without residing in Spain first.

there are many ways of applying for spanish citizenship: residency, marriage, birth, having a natural born spanish citizen parent.
applying for spanish citizenship thru residency requires having a residence permit.

I wasn’t sure if the ley memoria allows great granddaughters as well or just simply granddaughters.

grandchildren

I tried doing it through my grandfather but the civil registry in Spain could not find his birth certificate.

are you sure about the name? spanish naming system is given names then fathers last name then mother’s last name.
are you sure about the date of birth, place of birth? his birth certificate should be available in his birthplace province civil registry.
try contacting his relatives, his brothers or sisters, nephews, nieces. they may be able to orient you better.
if he was from a small town you may try getting school records or try the church where he was baptized. they should have the same details as his birth ceritificate.

Thank you for your help!!!

I am not sure that his birthplace is correct. My mother did not know him very well so I am getting information from my grandmother and my aunts—but I don’t know if they remember everything exactly.
I got his birthdate from his US death certificate. Although the death certificate says he was born in Cuba… But literally everyone in my family who knew him says he was from Spain and they even remember pictures of him in his Spanish military uniform. And he had a Spanish accent. I am trying to get in contact with his other daughters but have had no luck.. This is what I know:
His name: Federico Menendez Arguelles
Birthdate: Jan 11, 1911
Fathers name: Celestino
Mother: Felisa (may have a different spelling)
Birthplace: Amandi, Villaviciosa, Asturias

He was a soldier in the Spanish civil war and fleed when it ended.
He has 2 other daughters (one named Tania, the other is unknown)
He married my grandmother in Cuba and they divorced. My mother was born in Cuba.
He became a citizen of Cuba when he first arrived and then moved to Miami after the Revolution.

Is there any way I could hire someone in Spain to investigate this for me? I don’t know how accurate my family’s information is.
Do you know of anyone that may be able to help me find it?

Thank you again for everything!

Amanda

I am not sure that his birthplace is correct. My mother did not know him very well so I am getting information from my grandmother and my aunts—but I don’t know if they remember everything exactly.
I got his birthdate from his US death certificate. Although the death certificate says he was born in Cuba… But literally everyone in my family who knew him says he was from Spain and they even remember pictures of him in his Spanish military uniform. And he had a Spanish accent. I am trying to get in contact with his other daughters but have had no luck.. This is what I know:
His name: Federico Menendez Arguelles
Birthdate: Jan 11, 1911
Fathers name: Celestino
Mother: Felisa (may have a different spelling)
Birthplace: Amandi, Villaviciosa, Asturias

He was a soldier in the Spanish civil war and fleed when it ended.
He has 2 other daughters (one named Tania, the other is unknown)
He married my grandmother in Cuba and they divorced. My mother was born in Cuba.
He became a citizen of Cuba when he first arrived and then moved to Miami after the Revolution.

Is there any way I could hire someone in Spain to investigate this for me? I don’t know how accurate my family’s information is.
Do you know of anyone that may be able to help me find it?

amandi, villaviciosa in asturias is a small town, you may still have relatives there.
you do not have much time left, i would recommend that you go to that town and check their local civil registry office. if you can’t find him, go visit the parish churches in the area and give them the data that you have and see if someone by that name, a son of celestino and felisa was baptized anytime soon after birthdate and if you get that baptismal data then that would help you find the birth certificate at the local town civil registry office.
if you get that, ask the local civil registry if you can apply for citizenship thru the ley de memoria hist?rica right there.
do you speak spanish?

Wow, so I just spoke with my mom and she said my grandmother was confused about his birthplace. He was not actually born in Amandi villaviciosa. She is getting old, so forgets things often. She said she thought we were asking about her father :-(

I asked everyone in the family and we know for sure that he was from Asturias but no one seems to know where in Asturias.. I wrote down the numbers of all the civil registries in that province so I am going to call each one and see what happens.. hopefully they answer the phone :-(

Unfortunately, I am in school until late December so I can’t go to Spain myself at the moment (even though I would love to!). And I don’t know anyone currently living in Spain.. I would love to pay someone to look for it in Spain.

I used a site called “Spain-visas.com” but the lawyer assigned to my case takes so long to respond to me.