Find Your Immigrant Ancestors - Naturalization Records -- Part One

"The naturalization petition of George Markert. - NARA - 279281" by Unknown or not provided - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_naturalization_petition_of_George_Markert._-_NARA_-_279281.jpg#/media/File:The_naturalization_petition_of_George_Markert._-_NARA_-_279281.jpg

One of the thorny issues of genealogical research is determining the place of origin of an ancestor. If you are doing research in the United States, unless your ancestors were Native Americans, you will inevitably have to deal with discovering the place of origin of an immigrant. One of the most potentially productive areas of research involve naturalization records. However, there are some definite time related limitations on their usefulness. As you go back in time, there are fewer records and those that do exist become less valuable due to their lack of detail. For this reason, it is important to understand the naturalization process as well as the general time periods in which the records can be expected to be found.

The earliest naturalization laws were not passed until 1790. It is important to realize that when a person entered the area now part of the United States of America, their entry was made according to the laws of the various European countries that controlled the area of entry. For example, immigrants who settled in the area now known as Arizona, New Mexico or California before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 were entering into Spain or Mexico. This is an important fact to remember. Likewise, if someone came from England before 1776, they were essentially moving from one part of the British Empire to another part and were not strictly "immigrants." They did not change their citizenship upon their arrival in America. Accordingly, there are no "naturalization" records available during those time periods. If people came from other areas of the world, then they would most likely be found in ship passenger arrival records. For records of arrivals on the Eastern Seaboard from 1538 to 1819 see the following books. This is a supplement (with a few duplicates) of the list I included in my post on passenger lists.

Baca, Leo. Czech Immigration Passenger Lists. Halletsville, Tex.; Richardson, Tex.: Old Homestead Pub. Co. ; Copies from L. Baca, 1983.

Brøderbund. Passenger and Immigration Lists. [Novato, Calif.]: Broderbund Software, 1998.

Brøderbund, Genealogy.com, United States, and National Archives and Records Service. Passenger and Immigration Lists. [Novato, Calif.]: [Broderbund] : Genealogy.com, 2000.

Filby, P. William. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Detroit: Gale, 1991.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 1995.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 1996.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1997.

———. “Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s 2000 Update.” Broderbund, 2000.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 1, Part 1,. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1997.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 1, Part 1,. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1998.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 1, Part 1,. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 1999.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 1, Part 1,. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 2000.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 1, Part 1,. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 2001.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 1, Part 1,. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 2002.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 2, Part 2,. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1998.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 2, Part 2,. Detroit: Gale, 1999.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 2, Part 2,. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 2000.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 2, Part 2,. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 2000.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 2, Part 2,. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 2001.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Part 2, Part 2,. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 2002.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: Supplement. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1994.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: Supplement,1982. [S.l.]: Gale Research, 1983.

Filby, P. William, and Paula K Byers. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Records of More than 2,410,000 Immigrants Who Came to the New World between the Sixteenth and the Mid-Twentieth Centuries. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1995.

Filby, P. William, and Harold Lancour. Passenger and Immigration Lists Bibliography, 1538-1900: Being a Guide to Published Lists of Arrivals in the United States and Canada. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1981.

Filby, P. William, and Dorothy M Lower. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 1992.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: 1986-90 Cumulated Supplements in Three Volumes. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 1990.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: 1991-95 Cumulated Supplements in Three Volumes. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 1995.

Filby, P. William, and Mary K Meyer. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index ... Vol. 2, Vol. 2,. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index ... Vol. 3, Vol. 3,. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981.

Filby, P. William, and Mary Keysor Meyer. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Arrival Records of 300,000 Passengers Who Came to the United States and Canada in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1980.

———. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Arrival Records of about 500,000 Passengers Who Came to the United States and Canada in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1981.

———. “Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Arrival Records of about 500,000 Passengers Who Came to the United States and Canada in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries.” Passenger and Immigration Lists Index : A Guide to Published Arrival Records of about 500,000 Passengers Who Came to the United States and Canada in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries., 1981.

Filby, P. William, Katherine H Nemeh, and Brøderbund. “Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s.” Brøderbund, 2000.

Gale Research Company. “Passenger and Immigration Lists Index.” Passenger and Immigration Lists Index., 1982.

———. “Passenger and Immigration Lists Index.” Passenger and Immigration Lists Index., 1985.

Genealogy.com. Passenger and Immigration Lists Irish to America, 1846-1886. Volume 2. Volume 2. [Novato, CA?]: Genealogy.com, 2001.

Genealogy.com (Firm). Baltimore Passenger and Immigration Lists. 1851-1872. Volume 2 Volume 2. [Novato, Calif.]: Geneaology.com, 2001.

———. Irish & British Immigrants to America, 1860s-1870s, Passenger and Immigration Lists. [Novato, Calif.]: Geneaology.com, 2003.

———. Irish & British Immigrants to America, 1870-1872, Passenger and Immigration Lists. Volume 2 Volume 2. [Novato, Calif.]: Geneaology.com, 2003.

———. Irish & British Immigrants to America, 1873-1879, Passenger and Immigration Lists. Volume 3 Volume 3. [Novato, Calif.]: Geneaology.com, 2003.

Passenger and Immigration Lists Bibliography 1538-1900: First Supplement. S.l.: s.n.], 1984.

Passenger and Immigration Lists: Boston, 1821-1850. [Place of publication not identified]: Genealogy.com, 2000.

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007.

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2008.

“Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Publ. Arrival Records of about ... Passengers Who Came to the United States and Canada in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries.” Passenger and Immigration Lists Index : A Guide to Publ. Arrival Records of about ... Passengers Who Came to the United States and Canada in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries, 1985.

Naturalization is defined as the process by which an alien becomes a national citizen. The process in the United States can be divided into two general time periods: Pre-1906 and naturalization after 1906. This time division is based on the fact that prior to 1906 naturalization was handled by local court's of record, whether municipal, county, state or Federal. In 1906 the Naturalization Acts required all naturalizations to be handled by the Federal District Courts and all the records were transferred, after that time, to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The Pre-1906 records are scattered in archives and other repositories around the country.

Here is a summary of the early immigration laws from the U.S. National Archives website:

An act of March 2, 1819 (3 Stat. 489) required the captain or master of a vessel arriving at a port in the United States or any of its territories from a foreign country to submit a list of passengers to the collector of customs, beginning January 1, 1820. The act also required that the collector submit a quarterly report or abstract, consisting of copies of these passenger lists, to the Secretary of State, who was required to submit such information at each session of Congress. After 1874, collectors forwarded only statistical reports to the Treasury Department. The lists themselves were retained by the collector of customs. Customs records were maintained primarily for statistical purposes. 

On August 3, 1882, Congress passed the first Federal law regulating immigration (22 Stat. 214-215); the Secretary of the Treasury had general supervision over it between 1882 and 1891. The Office of Superintendent of Immigration in the Department of the Treasury was established under an act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1085), and was later designated a bureau in 1895 with responsibility for administering the alien contract-labor laws. In 1900 administration of the Chinese-exclusion laws was added. Initially the Bureau retained the same administrative structure of ports of entry that the Customs Service had used. By the turn of the century it began to designate its own immigration districts, the numbers and boundaries of which changed over the years. 

In 1903 the Bureau became part of the Department of Commerce and Labor; its name was changed to the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization when functions relating to naturalization were added in 1906. In 1933 the functions were transferred to the Department of Labor and became the responsibility of the newly formed Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Under President Roosevelt's Reorganization Plan V of 1940, the INS was moved to the Department of Justice. The INS was abolished, and its immigration and naturalization recordkeeping functions were transferred to the new Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services within the new Department of Homeland Security, established January 24, 2003, by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (116 Stat. 2135, 2205).

Stay tuned for Part Two.