Hello List, I am no expert in naturalization research, however I do have some suggestions. 1) Immigrants could initiate and/or complete the naturalization steps at just about any court, including both state and federal courts. This makes the process of finding the records wide open. They could have declared their intention in the city where they landed, or just about anywhere in between there and where they finally ended up. The place to start is in the county they settled in (both state and federal courts). 2) One of the best places to find naturalizations papers is actually in immigrant's homestead papers. In order to legally homestead land, the person had to be a citizen, or be in the process of becoming a citizen. In many cases a copy of the naturalization papers is filed in the homestead packet for the individual. These records are available from the National Archives in Washington. The process for obtaining this records is straightforward, but can take awhile. I found instructions on how to do this in the South Dakota GENWEB page. Check it out. 3) Unfortunately, many times the hometown of the person declaring their intent is not listed in any of the naturalization papers. Each court had their own forms, and the forms changed over time. So even if you find your ancestors papers, the hometown may not be listed. 4) Many of the Sauk and Columbia County naturalization papers are available through the Family History Libraries. They charge $2.50 per roll for film. The Historical Society in Madison charges out-of-state researchers $15.00/roll. You can guess where I do most of my business. I guess the people in Madison are trying to discourage out-of-state researchers. 5) I have found that one of the best places to find a hometown mentioned is in the obituary of an immigrant. This is particularly true of the German language newspapers in Sauk County. I have identified the hometown of a number of my Sauk County ancestors in this manner. As far as I can tell these newspapers are only available from the Historical Society in Madison (see above for prices). I would be glad (within reason) to translate any obituaries you send me. I hope that this helps. Tom in Chapel Hill ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.