I'm not sure George Romney was a US Citizen after all. [View all]

[Barack_America]

Can somebody help me understand this?

I like genealogy and was intrigued by LynneSin's earlier thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1541571

It got me curious about the whole Mormon colony business and I decided to look into the Romneys. Here's what I found.

Gaskell Romney was George Romney's father. He was born in Utah in 1871 and moved to Mexico with his parents in 1884, before Utah became a state in 1896.

Anna Amelia Pratt was George Romney's mother. She was born in 1876, also in Utah. Unsure of exactly when she moved to Mexico.

However, Gaskell Romney and Anna Amelia Pratt were married, and presumably considered adults, IN MEXICO in 1895, one year BEFORE Utah became a state.

George Romney (Mitt's father) was born in Mexico in 1907 and moved to the US when he was 5 years old. The story is that, even though he was born and lived abroad, he is considered a US citizen by virtue of his parents.

My question is, how did his parents become US citizens if they were married adults, living in Mexico, before Utah even became a state?? By virtue of being born on US soil that eventually became a state, even though they were gone by the time it did??

I'm sure that I'm missing something here that will explain it, but this is kinda interesting stuff.

This is where I got my dates from:
http://www.our-genealogy.com/Latter-Day-Saint-Families/Romney-Family/ancestry-romney/gaskell_romney.htm