The alphabetical Card Index to Naturalizations (1845-1963) provides access to these Declarations, Petitions, and Certificates. Blue cards index Declarations, and white cards index Petitions and Certificates.
For Declarations, the index gives the volume number and page number for documents in Volumes 1-10 (1855-1929) and the volume number and Declaration number (shown on the Contents List below) for documents in Volume 11 (1929-1950). Declarations in Volume 12 (1950-1959) are not included in the Card Index, but this volume does have at its beginning its own index.
Prior to 1906, Washington County treated Petitions and Certificates interchangeably, perhaps because the information in each is very similar, although Petitions often provide an additional fact or two. Thus, some of Volumes 1-9 (1845-1906) are Petitions and some are Certificates. The volumes are numbered consecutively and all are indexed by white cards in the Card Index. For some individuals there is both a Petition and a Certificate. In these cases there are two index cards.
For Volumes 1-14 (1845-1929) of the Petitions and Certificates, the index gives the volume number and the page number. For Volumes 15-19 (1929-1963), the index gives either the volume number and Petition number, or just the Petition number. (Petition numbers are shown on the Contents List below.)
Because the volume numbers are repeated, the research when requesting materials should be sure to identify the type of record--Declaration or Petition/Certificate--as well as the volume number.
