Naturalization

Things to know about Naturalization:

In the Beginning...

When America was settled it had three sovereign territories: Spanish, British, French You were a citizen of that place if you were a citizen of that nation.

This means in British Colonial America you were a citizen if you came from the British Isles

The British colonies needed more settlers offered citizenship as enticement. The primary groups who responded were Dutch and German who swore an oath of allegiance at the county courthouse. These are found in court records and sometimes newspapers. This gave full citizenship privileges to vote and hold office.

1790 the first naturalization laws passed requiring two years residence of “free white people” Soon after it was made five years. This would see-saw in years ahead as politics and immigration became linked.

1802 naturalization laws set up the two step process that would be used:

DECLARATION OF INTENT – also called “first papers” with a requirement of five years residency

NATURALIZATION PETITION and RECORD which granted citizenship.

Both were filed at the local courthouse but often since they were years apart a person filed first papers in one state or county and petitioned in another. This is another reason you need to know all the places your immigrant family lived!

Some online Naturalization Indexes, Databases & Collections

It also set the precedent that a married woman and her underage children were whatever citizenship status as her husband. Unmarried women of age (including widows) could apply but few did because the reason for citizenship was voting rights and a woman would not qualify for those.

Minors: 1824 legislation declared any immigrant who came as a minor could petition the court when they turned 21 and get citizenship without having to filed a declaration of intent. If a man died before he got his final papers his widow could take an oath that gave herself and her children citizenship.

Anti-Immigrant Backlash:

Massive immigration picked up in the 1830s because of famine, poverty and overcrowding in Europe.

For the most part, serious backlash to this came in cities where politics played a larger role. An example would be the Irish Famine Immigrants in places like Boston. The Whig party had been vocally anti-catholic for years so when the Catholic Irish arrived they were frantic because they would not vote for Whigs. They paid newspapers and agitators to manipulate the anti-Irish response. This pattern kept repeating as new groups arrived later in the century and threatened the political status quo.

This means that your urban immigrant ancestors probably had to deal with more anti-immigrant reaction than your small town and rural immigrants. If your family lived in a place like Boston look in the newspapers for news items about the Irish or in Chicago about the Poles.

Married women: 1855 Legislation made it so the only way a married woman could prove citizenship was by showing her marriage certificate and her husband’s naturalization papers. There was much ambiguity about whether or not an American-born woman lost citizenship if she married a non-citizen. Different courts ruled different ways and no uniform interpretation of the law existed until 1909.

Civil War and Naturalization

The draft increased. If a man didn’t want to fight he could hire someone to take his place.

Immigrants were willing because they needed money if you enlisted in the Union and were 21 or over you would not have to file for intent and could simply apply for citizenship. Some immigrants did not understand and thought fighting granted citizenship so they never went to court to get their certificate yet they will tell you on the census they were naturalized!

1862 Homestead Act for anyone who had not taken up arms against the U.S. - the BLM GLO site will tell you if anyone in your family homesteads (make sure you look for ALL of them)

if you were born an immigrant proof of declaration of intent and/or naturalization went into your application.

Also proof of military service which meant you were not required to have filed intent.

Ancestry has a growing collection of Homestead Records. Fold3 has many Nebraska Homestead Records. Here is an example of what you might find in an immigrant's file

1868- 19th amendment if you were born in America you are now considered an American citizen unless you were a woman married to a non-citizen or were Native American.

1875: Came the first American laws to keep people out of the country:

1875 - specifically women of ill repute, convicts - in the decades that followed they would also put restrictions on paupers, the mentally ill, those who could not take care of themselves, those with specific illnesses like tuberculosis, epileptics and anarchists.

1875 Politics and public settlement were worried about the "wrong types of immigrants" coming (Eastern Europe, Italians, Greeks etc.) States were trying to keep groups from coming or keep them from voting. Supreme Court ruled no individual state could make or interfere with immigration law.

1882 Chinese Exclusion Acts which would eventually broaden to all Asian people.

For the first time a head tax for all immigrants was added – if you couldn’t pay it you were sent back.

1888 The first formal deportations took place – where they actually hunted down immigrants to deport

1891 Office of Immigration is established as part of the U.S. Treasury Department

1892 any immigrant woman traveling to the country alone must be met by a man or would be deported.

1906 – The federal government takes over immigration.

1907 -1922 Citizenship for married women now depends completely on their husband's status with no exceptions.

That meant if you were born in Ohio but married a German-born husband you were German unless he got naturalized.

Also, persons under 16 without a parent denied entry

NATURALIZATION AFTER 1906 - once the Immigration & Naturalization Service was created much more paperwork had to be filed. Certificates of arrival, passports, alien registration and more the paperwork became detailed. This means if ANYONE in your family waited much longer to become a citizen it is that person's papers that will show the most details including information about where they planned to settle and if they had relatives already here.

1918 - WWI they waived the 5-year residency demands and soldiers were actually naturalized at military posts or whatever court was near where they were stationed (instead of being near their legal residence)

1921 Immigration Quotas imposed for the first time – quotas were based on the total number of each nationality living in the U.S. when the census was taken in 1890. This was a crafty way to allow more immigrants from Western Europe and the British Isles and screen out the later immigrant groups like the Italians and the Poles.

1922 Married Woman's Act gave women nationality in their own right. Women are given the vote so they want citizenship.

1922 Japanese made ineligible for citizenship

1924 Native Americans granted citizenship for the first time

1940s all citizens born on U.S. Soil - no exceptions

Immigration was moved to the Justice Department which meant for the first time in American History criminalization could be attached to immigration

1952 Race as a factor for immigration barred