There are a few ways to find out if s/he became a citizen. First is to check their INS file for Naturalization documents. This is the most authoritative. I'll post info on how to apply to the INS in a separate message. LDS does not have US records of individuals, per se. Privacy rules generally prohibit public disclosure of such info for 100 years. That said, you'll find census information, but that is subject to the 70-year rule, as evidenced by census. The knowledge of the FHC volunteers (God Bless them) varies all over the map. Then again, once you're in the USA, the records of events in the USA are organized under the USA category, not Slovakia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia. Of course you know that. Frankly, I don't find much genealogical value in naturalization records. There was never any requirement that you become a naturalized citizen. Naturalization records contain very little useful information about the old country or family back home. In fact, my GPs spent their entire lives here in the USA as "resident aliens", beginning in 1904. You will find that if your relative was an alien in 1940, they had to register and fill out a form of great value to the researcher, the Alien Registration Form (AR-2) http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/history/ImmRecs/AREG.htm which contains very, very important goodies like parents name, place of origin, ships name, etc. There was also an annual registration that had to be filled in and sent to the INS (see above reference), although the INS discarded all but the most recent. The INS file is EXTREMELY VALUABLE. There are things called first and second papers http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/history/natzrec/natrec.htm which contain good info for the researcher. These are the intent to naturalize process documents. Even if they started,but never became citizens, they had a good record. A good start for someone located quite a distance from a FHC is the Family History Library Catalog found at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp Stay tuned, look for my followup message on INS and FOIA stuff. Bill Tarkulich -----Original Message----- From: Marlene Norton [mailto:marlene_norton@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 2:16 PM To: SLOVAKIA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: Need HELP please --- SLovak ancestor > There are probably more records squirrelled away in govt archives for > you. Sometimes even the archives or INS will respond with "no records > found," which turns out to be a mis-truth. What I mean it that the > clerk didn't try hard enough - I have had to persist more than once with > the INS on the same name before my GP's file was found. Don't give up > on a source simply because you may get one "rejection letter." Amen to that statement!!! I have been trying for several years to find a death certificate regarding a child who died on Ellis Island. Several tries yielded no reply or a reply that it wasn't there. Gave it another try earlier this year and received a copy. Same information that was sent in years past. Now, is there a place an immigrant might have registered if he never became a citizen? Or a way to find out if he did become a citizen? He came over around 1906 and died in 1965. Ancestry touts WWI registration records but so far they have only posted a few counties in Pa and NC. Would LDS have these records? I made my first trip to the closest center which is about 50 miles away and the people who volunteer there seem to be in awe of someone researching somewhere other than England. Marlene Norton __________________________________________________ Yahoo! - We Remember 9-11: A tribute to the more than 3,000 lives lost http://dir.remember.yahoo.com/tribute ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237