What does a Petition for Naturalization Tell Us?

Petitions for naturalization before 1906 usually show only a name, former allegiance, and date of naturalization.

Petitions for Naturalization after 1906 have information that has been verified and matched to an immigration record. Any immigrant arriving after June 29, 1906, could not naturalize until their immigration record (a passenger list) was found.

Since 1906, after an immigrant filed a Declaration of Intention or a Petition for Naturalization in a naturalization court, the Bureau of Naturalization was called upon to provide a certification of the immigrant's arrival record.

The certification, called a Certificate of Arrival was sent to the courthouse, and this allowed the immigrant to naturalize.

Examples of various Petitions for Naturalization are shown online on NaturalizationRecords.com The 1795 Petition for Naturalization for Patrick Ryan in Pennsylvania is lengthy but tells us little about Patrick.

In contrast, the 1906 Petition for Naturalization for Christopher Alt in Baltimore Maryland gives occupation, date and place of birth, date of immigration, port of departure and port of arrival, names of children plus dates and locations of births

Even better, the 1912 Petition for Naturalization for Jacob Imfang of Pittsburg Pennsylvania gives occupation, date and place of birth, date of immigration, port of departure and port of arrival, name of spouse, names of children plus dates and locations of births