First Papers

[rancelli]

Before 1900, do they list all members of the household?

[lilbees]

On the immigration papers of some of my family prior to 1906 they have limited if any information about the applicant. Each has consisted of a two sided piece of paper. Only an address where they lived at the time. Sometimes a birth date but not much more.

lilbees

[johnnyonthespot]

This is not a definitive answer, but I just browsed through several 1890's naturalization petitions and declarations at ancestry.com and did not find any which included spouse or children details.

This, from the National Archives site, may be of interest:

Prior to 1906 a typical naturalization record will include a declaration of intention and a petition of naturalization. There was no prescribed form for use by courts that were performing naturalization until 1906. Each court used its own forms for the declaration of intention and for the petition for naturalization and each court collected different information about an alien on the forms. Regardless of the form used, declarations and petitions filed prior to September 26, 1906 contain less personal information about the alien and his family than those filed on or after that date.

...

New forms for both the declaration of intention and the petition for naturalization were introduced following the passage of the Naturalization Act in June of 1906. The new act also required that legal immigration of an alien who wished to be naturalized be verified by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). INS would check the passenger list for the alien and, once legal entry was verified, INS would then issue a certificate of arrival for the alien to the court.

The forms introduced in 1906 were replaced in 1929 and have been replaced several times since then. The declaration of intent form introduced in 1929 included a photograph of the alien.


http://blogs.archives.gov/blog/2010/09/ ... on-part-1/

[rancelli]

thank you