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A few days before the birth, Steven went to the Town Hall to register "the unborn fruit" as the Dutch call it. Amongst other reasons this is so that if the mother dies during childbirth, the father is registered and so on.
Unlike the British, the Dutch have very strict rules about naming. We wanted to give him both our surnames, i.e. "Pemberton-Kerssens". This is not allowed by the Dutch. He could be either "Pemberton" or "Kerssens", but not both. So we decided to call him "Julian Pemberton Kerssens", where "Pemberton" was his middle name (we weren't sure if they would allow "Pemberton" as a middle name, but the man who did the registering was very nice, and just let Steven type it in.)
The next thing to do was register Julian with the British, so Steven phoned the Consulate. They asked him a few questions, and then said, no, sorry, it wouldn't be possible to register Julian as British (we have a Dutch marital status not recognised by the British).
So Steven went to the internet, and found the text of the British Nationality law online (luckily typed in by someone at a French site), and studied it.
After the birth, Steven tried again. "I want to get a passport for my newborn son". The same questions. "No, sorry, not possible". "Well, I've got the text of the Nationality Law, and I think it is possible". "Oh. Just a minute". Twenty minutes later: "Yes, you are right. You have to come in, and fill in some forms, and it will cost quite a lot of money, but you can do it". So we went in immediately before they changed their mind, filled in the forms, paid them lots of money, and sent off the forms.
The British Nationality Act defines several classes of British nationality. Since Julian wasn't born in the UK, it looked like the best we could hope for was second-class citizenship: one that he wouldn't be able to pass on to his children. However, we could include a covering letter, so we had, pointing out that if Astrid had been British and Steven Dutch the problem wouldn't have arisen (there are different rules for the mother and father), and several other things about the situation.
The British Government website seemed to suggest that we should expect it to take 18 months, so imagine our surprise when not two months later his certificate of first-class citizenship arrived! Since the British are not so hung-up about naming, we had registered him with the name we wanted: Julian Pemberton-Kerssens. So that hyphen is a purely British hyphen.
Since he loves baths so much, we thought perhaps he would like to go swimming. So each Friday we take him to a local pool that has a special pool for babies and seniors, that is shallow and warm, and take him to a class there for a half hour. He seems to enjoy it.
The fourth country Julian visited (after Sweden, Denmark, and Italy) was England, for a pre-Xmas visit. Here he is with his cousin John-Paul and his Grandma.
And his (English) Grandpa
With his Dutch Great Grandmother
