Hello Listmembers, A couple of things that Tracy mentioned need a bit of correction. 1) The residency requirement was not mandated by each state but by Federal Law and the length of time a person was required to live in the U.S. varied over time. 2) A person seeking naturalization was not required to file all papers in the same court. For example, he could file his Declaration in the U.S. Court in New York City and have his Admission (also called Final Papers) in the Court of Common Pleas in Luzerne County. There are several good books about the process and laws about naturalization and how they changed over time, but being presently in Wisconsin, I don't have my library list with me. Doug Nicol, Harvey's Lake PA ============================================================ From: TCas808108@aol.com Date: 2001/04/14 Sat AM 02:04:17 EDT To: PALUZERN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [PALUZERN] Naturalizaton Steps Hi again, I wanted to post a brief guide to the steps required to naturalize in the late 1800s. This will not only give you a better understanding of what our ancestors went through, but may help in your search for an arrival date: 1. Residency requirement: all states required that the immigrant meet the standard residency requirement before proceeding with naturalization. While it varied from state to state, most states were uniform on the 5-year rule. 2. Declaration of Intent: the immigrant would file this declaration with whatever court he chose to naturalize in. 3. Petition of Naturalization: the immigrant would then file this petition in the same court. The Declaration of Intent and the Petition usually contain the most information, such as date of arrival, country (and sometimes county) or origin, etc. This is the step where an immigrant can be denied. The immigrant must be literate and of good character. A US citizen, who knows the immigrant, must swear under oath that the person is of good moral character, understands the Constitution and exhibits good citizenship. 4. Naturalization: the immigrant would appear in court before a judge to swear to renounce all allegiance to his former country and pledge allegiance to his new country. Once the immigrant is naturalized, he is presented with a certificate with the raised seal of the state, stating that he was now a citizen of the US - suitable for framing. (In fact, I have a photocopy of the one issued to my gt-gt-grandfather.) Naturalization could take place in any court at any level: city, state or federal. The LDS in Salt Lake City has Declarations of Intent and Petitions (and accompanying indices) on microfilm for most states. Hope this is helpful. Take care, Tracy ==== PALUZERN Mailing List ==== Northeast Pennsylvania Chat can be accessed at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~paluzern/chat.htm ============================================================