Confused About Great Grandfather, Great-Great Grandfather Scenario

[datxcali]

Congrats on finding the death certificate, datxcali. I'm currently in the same position, where I can't find my GGGF's death certificate, so I found your thread very helpful. If you don't mind me asking, what libraries have the New York State Death Index? I'm also a native New Yorker, and I figured it might be worth a shot to try searching this library on the off chance he died outside of NYC(He disappears after the 1930 census, but my GGGM is listed on the 1940 census as widowed). Thank you for any tips you may be able to provide and best of luck with the rest of the process; it sounds like you are getting close.

Thanks!

Well, lucky for you, you don't need to actually visit the sites anymore. Since my visit there (just a month ago), the following has been released and should be indexed soon:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=%2 ... d4155c2bdd

I'd recommend looking through that index from 1930 to 1940.

Also, PM me with your ancestor's name if you'd like and I could see what I could find. I've gotten very good at finding name variations and mistakes in records.

[datxcali]

So I hit yet another wrinkle.

It turns out that the Bronx (where his petition index card was listed) cannot find his petition. They told me that there was somebody completely different under his petition and volume number. They won't issue me a nonexistence letter because they believe it exists, but that it was just indexed incorrectly.

Luckily, I was able to find a second declaration of intention in Manhattan (it appears that he filed the declaration in Manhattan and then the petition in the Bronx). The date on that document was October of 1915.

This was a fantastic find because it narrows down my search for his petition to October of 1917 to his death in September of 1919 (and I believe, based on a few other things that I've found, that the petition was completed by the end of 1917).

So I still believe that he naturalized.

I plan on making the trip back to New York for Thanksgiving and will spend an entire day at the Bronx court house looking through microfilm. I will not rest until I find that document!

I'll keep you all posted on how this goes.