Did he naturalize?

[christi28]

I am trying to find out if my great-grandfather naturalized. I have the 1920 census information, and there is a question about naturalization, and he has listed 1918. However, I can't seem to find any information to support that. Does anyone have information to actually search for my ancestor's records? I am wanting to apply for dual citizenship, but if he did naturalize, I am out of luck, correct?
Here is a link, he is listed as John Simonetti (though he was born Giovanni Simonetti).
http://gen.gserver.com/html/ut22as.htm
Any help or advice is appreciated.

Christine

[ricbru]

You can try sending a request to local court house, to local NARA, and to USCIS and Homeland Security.
If your great granfather naturalized before your grandfather/grandmother was born, you can apply only after being a legal resident of italy for 3 years.
Otherwise if he naturalized after his child was born, there is not problem, you can apply.
The document of the link above seems to be where it is located the delaration of intention
bye Riccardo

[johnnyonthespot]

Can you give us some dates for Giovanni? Birth? Immigration?

Do you know the city of birth? City of residence in the US?

Wife's name? Children?

Have you found his passenger manifest showing his entry into the US? If yes, is there a numeric notation written next to his name - something like x-xxxxx or yy-yyyyyy? If so, this would be a "Certificate of Arrival" number and would be a clear indication that he at the very least began the naturalization process by filing a Declaration of Intent.

[christi28]

His birth date was in 1986 in Italy.. He immigrated in 1913. Here is the link to his manifest. They don't even have his name listed, just immigrant alien...I don't seem to see any numbers next to his name.

http://www.ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup ... &line=0002

I am hoping he didn't naturalize, because I was really hoping for the dual citizenship. He married my grandma Elizabeth Adamson in Tooele Utah in 1923. Some of his children are named Ben and Henry. Henry is my grandfather and he was born in 1927. So, I guess if the 1920 census is correct, and he did naturalize in 1918, it was before my grandfather was born. The thing with his name, is he started at some point, going by John Simonetti-and someone, somewhere changed his name to Simonette, which is what my last name is. If that helps any.

I really appreciate the help, because I am at a complete loss at to how to find this information out.

So, thank you!

[christi28]

Here is his war registration card from 1917, and it says he is an alien...http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/9420/1917.jpg

[johnnyonthespot]

The manifest you linked to is the second page of a two-page document. At ellisisland.org, the manifests seem to be scanned in reverse order, so the page returned by a search is the second page (most later manifests are two pages wide, but not all). To see the first page, you have to click the "Next Page" link. Yours is here: http://ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup_wei ... &line=0002

It says that young Giovanni was travelling with his father, Giuseppe, leaving behind his mother (Giuseppe's wife), Antonia.

As to naturalization, in the ideal situation you will find that your ancestor did naturalize, after the birth of the next in line child. I say ideal situation, because it is much easier to present to the consulate evidence of actual naturalization then to convince the consulate that naturalization did not occur - many consullates now require multiple levels of proof for non-naturalization.