I recently located the Declaration of Intent of my g-grandfather filed at Lorain County Probate Court on November 1, 1876. However, I need help with two questions now. First Question: If he filed the Declaration of Intent on 1 November 1876, then how could he be Naturalized on 1 November 1878? I thought three years were required between these two filings. Second question: On the Decl. of Intent, the section indicating the date he emigrated is blank. The next phrase reads: "and arriving at the United States - on the - "(these 2 words were crossed out and space left blank) - "day of" - (these 2 words were crossed out. Blank space merely said "ni, 1871." Does anyone know what "ni" stands for? Has anyone seen this before? Thanks in advance. I'm again ready to learn something new! Jean

Hi Jean, Ni, according to Wesbster's 3rd International edition, is an abbreviation for night. However, when I was a child, it was used in a sentence such as "They've been living here, ni 50 years." In this usage, I believe it to mean "around," "about" or "near to," or "coming up on." In fact, now that I think about it, the memory is from watching western movies as a kid! So with the use "ni, 1871" the person giving this information probably didn't know, or didn't remeber the date, and possibly not even the right year, so they stated "ni, 1871" which probably meant "near 1871, or sometime in the year of 1871." Having said all that, I would guess that is why "date of" is crossed out. Also, it was not unusual for the 3 yeaar period to be shortened, and in the case of you g-grandfather, who seemed uncertain of his arrival date, they may have just let it slide. (This is really a guess on my part, but I do remember reading on one of these boards, that the 3 years was not always observed.) My best, Patricia [email protected] wrote: I recently located the Declaration of Intent of my g-grandfather filed at Lorain County Probate Court on November 1, 1876. However, I need help with two questions now. First Question: If he filed the Declaration of Intent on 1 November 1876, then how could he be Naturalized on 1 November 1878? I thought three years were required between these two filings. Second question: On the Decl. of Intent, the section indicating the date he emigrated is blank. The next phrase reads: "and arriving at the United States - on the - "(these 2 words were crossed out and space left blank) - "day of" - (these 2 words were crossed out. Blank space merely said "ni, 1871." Does anyone know what "ni" stands for? Has anyone seen this before? Thanks in advance. I'm again ready to learn something new! Jean ==== OHLORAIN Mailing List ==== Search the Archive of Messages for OHLORAIN Mailing List http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/OHLORAIN mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning born of the one light, eden saw play praise with elation, praise every morning god's recreation of the new day Morning has broken as sung by Cat Stevens