An 1862 law allowed honorably discharged Army veterans of any war to
petition for naturalization, without having filed a declaration of
intent, after only 1 year of residence in the United States.
Variations of this special treatment continued throughout the years.
The
wording of the 1862 Act stated that any alien, age 21 or up "...who has
enlisted, or may enlist in the armies of the United States...."
It
was designed to encourage enlistment during the Civil War. Aliens
serving in the US military did not gain citizenship through service
alone.
The naturalization of soldiers was performed under
certain provisions of nationality law facilitating the naturalization of
members of the US armed forces. These provisions waived the
Declaration of Intention requirement and waived or reduced the residency
requirement. Many soldiers filed petitions and were naturalized the
same day.
See SPECIAL CASES: Military for more details
Instead
of naturalization "first papers", some courts filed military
discharges. Sometimes you will have to consult separate military indexes
but you should start looking in the usual places first. Military
naturalizations were included in the WPA Project indexes (You can read
about the WPA Project and naturalization indexes, and view an online one
for all of Arkansas for 1809-1906
If
the naturalization took place in a Federal court, naturalization
indexes, declarations of intent, and petitions will usually be in the
NARA regional facility serving the State in which the Federal court is
located. Some of these indexes and records have been microfilmed.
Naturalization
records from county courts may be at the county court, in a county or
State archives, or at a regional archives serving several counties
within a State.
Some county court naturalization records have been
donated to the National Archives and are available as National Archives
microfilm publications. These are listed under the state in which they
occurred, at NaturalizationRecords.com
Scroll down to the state list at the bottom of the page.
1 comment:
I didn't know that! Thanks for sharing!
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