Hello my genealogical friends and welcome back to my blog! I hope that I am finding you well in your research. Today I would like to cover a topic you may have run across in your research on specific ancestors or on your journey towards understanding the emigration and immigration of your ancestors, which I touched on in a previous blog. If you have yet to run across emigration and immigration, I encourage you to check out my blogs on the topics. If you have run across these topics, it is most likely due to an ancestor of yours moving from one country to another. Usually, during this period in your ancestor’s life they might go through the process of naturalization, this is the topic which I hope to help you understand more fully today.
The process of naturalization is more than just a simple move to another country. It requires a series of paper and legal work where your ancestor advocates that they have renounced any other foreign ties and will hold allegiance instead to the country they are immigrating to. For example, if an ancestor is immigrating from Germany to the U.S., they would swear that they hold no loyalties to Germany anymore, but to the U.S. instead. Finding paperwork that points towards the naturalization of an ancestor can help you flush out their individual story on your tree. Luckily because naturalization is an extensive process several types of documents exist that can help you as the family genealogist track your ancestors’ journey.
There are six types of records: declaration of intent to naturalize, petition to naturalize, certificate of naturalization, naturalization depositions, certificate of arrival, and, alien registration files. In a declaration of intent to naturalize you may find basic information including your ancestors name, date of application, and birth country. Usually, these bare bones declarations are from before 1906. After 1906 information within the declaration became slightly more elaborate. Petition to naturalize is a document that usually declares that your ancestor met the requirements to try for naturalization including a certain period of residency. Certificate of naturalization will show that your ancestor was naturalized and might include their name, the date, signature of your ancestor on an allegiance oath, and, the name of witnesses. Naturalization depositions will be documents that stem from the witnesses at your ancestor’s naturalization. Certificate of arrival is proof that your ancestor arrived via legal immigration whereas alien registration files started in the 1940’s might detail your ancestors non-citizen status.
Finding many of these documents can be tough, as might know from your hours of previous of research, but how amazing is it that we live in a time of such great technology! There are several websites that can help you track down naturalization specific documents for your ancestors’. Some of my favorites include:
- com: Immigration and Travel
- Angel Island Immigration Station angelisland.org
- Brigham Young University Immigrant Ancestors Project immigrant.byu.edu
- Ellis Island ellisisland.org
I hope that as you continue on your journey to build your family tree that these resources and information will come in handy. As always if you have any questions feel free to look back on past blogs or check out my webinars listed under the webinar tab on this same website. If you have a question on a topic I haven’t covered, or an issue specific to your research please do not hesitate to reach out to me via the contact information in the top right of this website. Happy sleuthing!
Winona I Laird, “The Genealogy Granny”
