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Tracing Your Immigrant and Ethnic Ancestors: Specialized Records | |
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Looking for Naturalization Records | |
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Searching Out Passenger Lists | |
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Guidebooks for Research | |
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Immigrant and Ethnic Resources | |
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Naturalization records Between 1776 and 1790, each state established laws, procedures and residency requirements for aliens to become naturalized citizens. Since 1790, when the first federal naturalization law was passed, a series of acts have changed restrictions and requirements over the centuries. For more detailed coverage on naturalization laws and records, see American Naturalization Records, 1790-1990: What They Are and How to Use Them by John J. Newman (Heritage Quest, $12.95) and They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins by Loretto Dennis Szucs (Ancestry, $19.95).
Before 1906, an immigrant could go to any court of record and apply for citizenship. In fact, your ancestor could have initiated naturalization in one court and completed it in another court. The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization—now known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service www.ins.usdoj.gov—was established in 1906, and copies of all naturalizations made after this date in courts around the country were forwarded to that agency. Becoming a naturalized citizen was standardized and involved the process of filing a declaration of intention ("first papers"), then, after fulfilling the residency requirement, filing a petition for naturalization, which required the applicant's signature ("second papers" or "final papers").
To obtain naturalization records, check at courthouses—municipal, county, state and federal—where the immigrant arrived and/or settled. These records as well as indexes to the records may have also been microfilmed by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City www.familysearch.org/Search/searchcatalog.asp, so you could borrow them through your local Family History Center. Also check city, county and state archives. Naturalizations made in municipal courts may be found in the town halls or city archives of some major cities, such as Baltimore, Chicago and St. Louis. If these avenues fail, write to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 425 I St. NW, Washington, DC 20536. On the envelope, write "FOIA/PA request," and also note this in your letter. This means you are making the request under the Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act.
As you'll learn from reading social histories, members of some ethnic groups were slow to become naturalized, if at all, or were not allowed to do so.
Depending on the time of your ancestor's arrival, naturalization records can give you the precise date and port of arrival, as well as the name of the ship, the port of departure and the immigrant's date and place of birth. Some records, however, may give you only a year when the immigrant arrived.
Read on for details on passenger lists. To learn how social history can help you track your immigrant and ethnic ancestors, see the December 2000 issue of Family Tree Magazine.
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