Naturalization records in America.

[Italysearcher]

Although I am an experienced researcher of Italian records I have never done anything in American records.
A colleague obtained some records for me for a potential ancestor who emigrated from England. Declaration of Intent, land patents etc.
The declaration of intent was filed in 1870 the same year he arrived in America. Is it possible it is the same person?
The actual citizenship occurred 10 years later in 1880.
The land patents were granted in 1872 and I understand it is possible to obtain copies of the documents used to obtain the land patent.
What kind of documents would these be? A passport, birth certificate?
This gentleman never states the same year of birth (census records etc) and never gives anything other than England as his origin. Not even a death certificate states anything concerete, not even his parents names. I need 'something' to prove that he is my ancestor.
Can anyone help?

[darkerhorse]

An immigrant could file first papers at any time, even upon arrival in the U.S. though not that common.

[darkerhorse]

After becoming a naturalized citizen, the naturalization record number sometimes was written on the manifest record after the fact.

[parkergambino]

Ann,

Naturalizations are pretty much the least standardized of American records, as the process could take place in ANY courthouse! Each jurisdiction had its own idea of what the paperwork and process looked like, especially in the 19th century.

Things got a little more uniform in the 20th century; the Declaration would expire if not followed up with a petition within a certain number of years (7? haven't checked lately), and there might have been some minimum residency period before papers could be submitted. But this doesn't help much with the 19th century search.

Assuming you have the citizenship papers in hand (that's how it sounds), the place to make inquiry is the court where they were issued. Additional complication: over time various courts became consolidated, so a named court may cease to exist, necessitating additional research to see where paperwork ended up. Sometimes it's in an obscure corner of some basement room where nobody even knows it's there, and might be difficult to persuade someone to go looking.

I don't have real estate document experience. I expect that likewise you would want to start looking at the jurisdiction where the action took place, and consider the possibility that some form of consolidation may also have applied, making any search even less straightforward.

Doesn't sound good, so cross your fingers and hope that some archives and archivists are around where you need them. My experience with Ulster County in New York State was productive, but that's a small sample size.

Parker

[mjclayton1]

This link might help a bit...

https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/our-hist ... -1795-1956

Also:

https://www.archives.gov/research/immig ... ralization

https://www.uscis.gov/records/genealogy

I have never done this before, but for genealogy looks like maybe form G-1041 (Index Search Request) or G-1041A (Records Request).

Mark

[mjclayton1]

Ann- This might help explain the earlier process (prior to 1906)...

https://familytreewebinars.com/wp-conte ... Silver.pdf

Mark

[mjclayton1]

And Land Patents...

https://www.archives.gov/research/land/land-records