More Living Columnists

• Dolores Sanchez Badillo: The view from the fenceline
• Mary Penner: Learning about your past is an awesome journey
• Steve Brewer: Goofy fads can hold fond memories for families

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Some yearned for gutsy adventure. Some embraced the idealism of a young democracy. Others felt cornered by life's circumstances and desperately wanted a new start.

Whatever the motivation, millions of emigrants from all over the world scraped together the money for a one-way ticket to America.

Many of them never saw their homelands or the loved ones they left behind again.

Some immigrants joined with other countrymen and established ethnic and cultural enclaves on the vast U.S. territory. Others blended into the melting pot.

A handful of recent arrivals on our shores took a look around, said "no thanks," and booked a return ticket to the motherland.

The majority, though, were in it for the long haul. America was now their home.

Just to keep all the details tidy, the U.S. government, like all governments, expected the swarms of immigrants to become citizens by a process known as naturalization.

Given that our immigrant ancestors already proved their independent natures by taking that great leap across the big pond, it's not surprising that some ignored the whole naturalization issue.

For researchers with law-abiding ancestors, however, naturalization records can hold important clues.

The details, you'll find, vary depending on when the immigrant arrived in this country. For pre-20th century immigrants, you won't find much.

Many immigrants followed a two-step naturalization process. In the first step, the declaration of intent, you will often only find the immigrant's name, his current residence and his native country.

Some states requested more details than others. In Indiana, for example, some declarations also asked for the immigrant's age, arrival port and date of arrival.

The second step, the petition for citizenship, sometimes produced a few additional family factoids. You might find names of relatives who testified on behalf of the would-be citizen.

Only the man of the family needed to apply for citizenship, so women and children are rarely found in the records.

After 1906, the federal government took over the naturalization process from the states. The paperwork, naturally, became much more labor intensive. Bad news for immigrants; good news for researchers.

These more recent naturalization applications include a personal description, occupation, date and place of birth, names and birth dates of spouse and children, last foreign address and the date of arrival in America. You also might find a photo of the applicant.

So, where do you find these records? Good question. Prior to 1906 any "court of record" could grant citizenship. Applicants might make their declarations in one court and their petitions in another court.

For example, one Prussian immigrant made a declaration in New Mexico in 1869. But he didn't petition for citizenship until 19 years later in South Dakota.

Some courts kept separate records for naturalizations; others simply logged the declarations and petitions in the court journals along with all of the other cases.

You may need to check every court in every place the immigrant lived in order to find the naturalization records.

For post-1906 naturalizations, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service maintains the records.