This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: fmrees Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.massachusetts.unknown/6915.1.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: When searching for records for our ancesters we learned during a visit to the National Archives that naturalization, at least in the 1860s, could happen in any court, not just federal ones. They only had listings (and I am not sure about sites like Ancestry) only had records of Federal Courts. I don't know if this still was the practice in the years for which you are searching or not. They at NARA suggested writing to the county where people lived to see if the county or towns would have the records and suggested the website www dot VitalRec dot com as a resource of the county court address. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.