12/1/2004
By Diane Haddad
St. Louis, the most common launchpad for 19th-century westward pioneers, presented the last opportunity for many immigrants to become US citizens before hitting the trail.
St. Louis, the most common launchpad for 19th-century westward pioneers, presented the last opportunity for many immigrants to become US citizens before hitting the trail. Until a few years ago, their naturalization cards were scattered among the city's courthouses and federal offices.
The St. Louis Genealogical Society <www.stlgs.org> (StLGS) has since completed an index to the cards. By year's end, StLGS will post this resource — named the Naturalization Project index for now — and digital images of the cards on its Web site.
The index covers 93,000-plus naturalizations made in St. Louis city courts from 1816 to 1906, when the US government took over the citizenship process.