Photos: 1918 registration documents, courtesy of the Arkansas State Archives.
Researching
your immigrant ancestors’ stories can be a long, drawn-out process. For many
researchers, it helps to have a strong oral family history to use as a starting
point. However, in some cases, such stories have been lost over time.
So, how do
genealogists reconstruct immigration stories?
The key is to
start with an individual’s life after coming to the United States. But, what if
the immigration date, or the immigrant’s country of origin is not known? This information can often be discovered by
referring to the genealogist’s old standby – census records.
From 1850 to
1940, one of the key questions asked by the U.S. Census Bureau was: “Where were
you born?” This question gives researchers a starting point, to discover countries
of origin in the census data. From 1900 to 1930, the Census also asked, if an
individual was naturalized (that is, being granted citizenship) and from 1910
to 1920, the Census included arrival dates.
Most
importantly, these records can be used to find where the individual was living at
a particular point in time. This clue can help researchers find documents at
the local level. Perhaps surprisingly,
such documents can include naturalization. Before 1906, any municipal, county,
state or federal court could grant U.S. citizenship. Even now, there exists no
comprehensive, nationwide index for these early naturalizations.
For Arkansas,
the earliest naturalization records date back to when the state was part of the
Louisiana Territory in the early 1800s. The
Arkansas Territory was formed in 1819 from the southern portion of Missouri
Territory and became a state in 1836. Knowing where an individual lived, and
when, will help narrow the choices of where to look for possible naturalization
and immigration records.
Another helpful
tip is to learn about U.S. immigration history and its process before diving
into individual research. Immigration laws changed over time, so knowing the
history of immigration will help you understand what documents existed and
where those records may be kept.
In the U.S.,
citizenship historically has been a two-step process. Immigrants first
completed and filed a declaration of intent, then completed a petition for
naturalization. Those documents led to orders granting citizenship, which were
generally approved five years or more after the filing of the declaration of
intent. This may sound straightforward, but complications showed up in
practice. An immigrant might file his or her declaration in one state, then
finish the petition in another state, or another district within the same
state. Records might not be kept in one location, and counties often did not create
separate, dedicated registers or ledger books to record such documents. That
means immigration documents can be found recorded in virtually any municipal,
county, state or federal court record book.
No complete
nationwide index for early naturalizations exists, but there was an attempt
made in the 1930s to create one. It was the work of the Immigration and
Naturalization Records Indexing Project, a service division for the Works
Progress Administration. The project was ambitious but not complete. It covered
the years 1810 to 1906 and listed every immigration document that its staff
could find. The information was organized in three categories: counties with
records; name of the book where documents were recorded or filed; and the page
number of the record. This process created an index of record cards
phonetically organized through the Soundex system; a searchable database of
this resource is available through FamilySearch.org. The project covers
immigration records up to the date that the federal government took over the naturalization
process on Sept. 27, 1906, but be advised: Even then, it took lower courts time
to stop approving naturalization documents.
The Arkansas
State Archives holds many county records created before the Indexing Project.
They include declarations of intent that reveal where the person came from and
when they arrived in the U.S. The State Archives also has some petitions, which
includes information about the petitioner’s family.
Records for
after 1906 can be found on Ancestry.com, a research database the Arkansas State
Archives offers for free at its Little Rock facility. Immigration records are
also available at the National Archives. The U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services may
also have duplicate records, including certificates of citizenship granted from
1906 to 1956.
Other records
may be available, including enemy alien registrations. Following the U.S. entry
into WWI, non--naturalized individuals born in the Central Powers nations,
including Germany, Turkey, Austria and Bulgaria, were required to register with
the U.S. government as a national security measure. The information on these Enemy
Alien Registration affidavits included: the non-naturalized resident’s name, date and
place of birth, parents’ names and their birthplaces, parents’ residences, the
resident’s place of residence, U.S. arrival date, spouse’s name and birthplace
and maiden name, if applicable.
The Arkansas
State Archives preserves many alien enemy registration affidavits from
immigrants who had moved to eastern Arkansas. Alien registration records may
also be found online at FamilySearch and the National Archives.
Some
naturalization records may be available in Pulaski County for foreign-born
soldiers who were naturalized at Camp Pike during World War I. Many
foreign-born men signed up to serve the U.S. during World
War I in the hopes of earning
their citizenship. To encourage
immigrant enlistments, the U.S. Congress passed laws
that expedited military naturalizations. The measure worked – about 18 percent of WWI soldiers in the U.S.
Army were foreign-born.
For more information about Arkansas
history, visit archives.arkansas.gov.
Although the Arkansas State Archives is closed to the public due to COVID-19,
staff are still accepting research requests and answering questions. Research
requests are available online or by
calling 501-682-6900.
