I am still trying to find out the specifics about a legal action (by the State of New Jersey?) against my Grandfather, Cornelius Hamler. His *citizenship* as a citizen of New Jersey was restored to him in 1889 per a Trenton Newspaper announcement. He lived in Sussex County and was home with his wife for the Census of 1880. What did he do wrong that would cause him to have the state of New Jersey revoke his citizenship? A very kind person in New Jersey (I live in Arizona) looked into some legislative information regarding anything about Cornelius Hamler and the year he was released from the withdrawal of his state citizenship. We are still in a qu andary about how this was connected with my Grandfather exactly. He wrote: "The text of the law printed in The Trenton Times is the same as the text printed in the bound volume of the Laws of 1889. In that book, it is printed in a section labelled 'Private Laws': it was apparently the only private law passed that session. (A private law is a law for the benefit of a particular person.) The only additional information in the bound volume is a printed notation in the margin that says: 'Restoration of Citizenship.' "Here's where it gets intriguing. According to the index, Gov. Robert Green, by proclamation, declared the private law void on July 16, 1889. His proclamation states that law 'has become inoperative and void for the reason that the parties interested therein have failed to pay the sum assessed thereon...' and goes on to cite laws from 1858 and 1859... "These days, if someone was going to be done just for one person, it would more likely be done by gubernatorial pardon than by legislative action. That's how John Gregorio got the right to run for office again after he was convicted -- Gov. Tom Kean issued him a pardon. "At one time, however, the Legislature did a lot of things that are now handled by the Governor, state agencies or the courts. In the 1700s, you went to the Legislature if you wanted a divorce. The April 1889 law might have been to restore Hamler's right to vote or hold office, although I can't say for sure. It's entirely possible he lost those rights for some reason other than a criminal conviction (like bankruptcy perhaps); at one time you needed to own land to vote. Apparently, the subsequent proclamation voiding the law was because someone failed to pay some sort of fee designed to pump money into the treasury. The modern day equivalent might be losing your driving license for having unpaid parking tickets." Does anyone have expertise in this area? Does anyone have access to Sussex County newspapers in which it would be easy to look up "Cornelius Hamler" (or Cornelius Homler or Humler) between 1880 and 1889? Am open to any ideas! Many thanks! Kathleen