General
The Fond du Lac County Naturalization Records consist of Declarations of Intention, Petitions, Naturalization Certificates, Orders granting or denying Petitions, Orders Admitting to Citizenship, Repatriations, and Indexes to Declarations, Petitions, Certificates, and Orders Admitting to Citizenship. The records in this collection exist in several formats--bound volumes, boxes, and microfilm--and the same record may appear in more than one form.
Originally the records contained several volumes identified by the same volume number. For instance, there were two volumes identified as “A” and four volumes identified as “1.” In an attempt to eliminate some of the confusion, all volumes have been renumbered consecutively. However, since the indexes often reference the original volume numbers, the original numbers are included in parentheses on the labels and the Contents List.
Furthermore, the original titles on several volumes were either inaccurate or misleading. These have been corrected and standardized on the labels and the Contents List.
Indexes
For each of the five indexes in this collection, the dates given are core dates. For example, Volume 1 indexes Declarations and Orders Admitting to Citizenship for such transactions completed in the 1844-1911 period. However, if a person was admitted to citizenship in 1844, that person obviously filed a Declaration of Intention prior to 1844, and Volume 1 will index this pre-1844 Declaration. Similarly, if a Declaration was filed in 1911, the admission to citizenship took place after 1911 and is included in the index.
The beginning place for using the Fond du Lac Naturalization Records is the Card Index to Naturalizations, 1844-1974. It is contained in nine card drawers which have been filmed and appear on Reels 1-3.
These pre-printed cards provide the following information: name, certificate number, date, when born, where born, court number, names of witnesses, and date and port of arrival in the United States. Frequently, the “date of final papers” and the volume and page number of the final papers will also be typed on the card. “Final Papers” generally means the Order Admitting to Citizenship. Not every card will give all of this information. The forms used for the various stages of the naturalization process varied from time to time and place to place and often these forms did not request all of the information listed above. Further, if a person did not carry the naturalization process past filing for a Declaration of Intention, no witnesses, which were required only for Petitions, will be given. Also, if a person was naturalized before October 1906 when certificate numbers were first issued, no certificate number will be listed.
The main problem with the Card Index is that, although the index cards were uniform, the practices of the indexers were not. Sometimes a court number will be put in the space provided for the Certificate number. Also, since the card calls for “date” and “court number” but does not specify whether these are for the Declaration or the Petition, the indexers frequently were arbitrary in which document they chose to reference in these categories. In general, however, the reference is to the last step taken in the naturalization process by a particular person.
In order to take into consideration both these inconsistencies and also the probability of human error creeping into the indexing procedure, the Contents List and the labels for each volume, box, or reel include virtually all possible finding aid information--date, original volume number, court number, and certificate number. The one to four digit numbers (shown in parentheses) are the court numbers and the five digit or longer numbers are the certificate numbers.
If you cannot find a particular person in the Card Index, consult the other four indexes. Volume 1 is an index to Declarations and to Orders Admitting to Citizenship for the years 1844-1911. It should be noted, however, that individuals often were admitted to citizenship at the same time that they filed their Petitions. To the extent that this was the case, this volume can also be considered an index to Petitions. Volume 1 gives the date, volume, and page for Declarations and the same information for Orders Admitting to Citizenship. Sometimes this index also lists a “number” and a “box” with the Orders Admitting to Citizenship information, but this actually refers to the court number and volume of the Declaration. This index is arranged by alphabetical segments and chronologically therein.
Volumes 2 (1844-1882) and 3 (1872-1886) are also indexes to Declarations and Orders Admitting to Citizenship. They provide the name of the individual and the dates of Declaration and Order. Sometimes a volume and page number will be given. When this is not the case, however, the date is the key to finding a record and it must be matched with the corresponding dates in the appropriate Declaration and Petition volumes or boxes. These indexes are arranged by alphabetical segments and thereunder more or less chronologically by date of Declaration.
Volume 4 indexes Declarations, Petitions, and Orders Admitting to Citizenship, 1917-1974. For each individual, it gives information useful for finding the desired documents--date, volume, page number, court number, and certificate number. It is arranged by alphabetical segments and roughly chronologically by date of transaction (Declaration or Petition) therein.
Declarations of Intention
In addition to the Declarations contained in Volumes 5-21, copies of Declarations are often included with the Petitions, especially after 1906. Also, see the description of Boxes 3-12, under Miscellaneous.
Petitions
Volumes 22 and 23 contain copies of Petitions for 1844-1871 and 1871-1883 respectively. There does not appear to be any consistent order to these documents, but each is assigned a court number. This court number is usually the key information when using the indexes, although volume and page numbers are also often provided by the indexes and are useful as backup finding aids. Furthermore, not all Petitions for these time periods are recorded in Volumes 22 and 23. Boxes 3-12, described under Miscellaneous, also contain Petitions, which in some cases duplicate and in some cases complement those in Volumes 22 and 23.
Volume 24 contains court copies of actual Certificates of Naturalization, 1884-1903. There does not appear to be a complete set of Petitions for this time period, although many are contained in Boxes 9-10 described under Miscellaneous. The Certificates of Naturalization, however, contain the same information usually provided by Petitions.
Petitions for 1903-1974 are contained in Volumes 25-60. During these years forms were standardized throughout the United States, with the Petition and the Order Admitting to Citizenship usually appearing on the same document. Furthermore, copies of Declarations generally accompany these Petitions. The Contents List and volume labels give the court and certificate numbers when provided, and also the dates of the records. The documents have two significant dates: the Petition filing date and the date of the court's Order Admitting to Citizenship. Since the latter date is often several months later than the Petition's date, the beginning date of a volume is sometimes earlier than the ending date of the preceding volume. Also, the certificate numbers were not always assigned in consecutive order. Thus, a lower certificate number will sometimes appear in a later volume than one might expect.
Miscellaneous
In addition to the naturalization documents generally listed in this category, such as lists of Orders Granting or Denying Citizenship and Repatriations, a volume of Orders Admitting to Citizenship and ten boxes of Declarations and Petitions are also included.
Volume 61 contains the Orders Admitting to Citizenship, 1844-1852, for approximately fifty individuals who had filed Declarations outside Fond du Lac County. There is an alphabetical index at the front of the volume. Petitions for these individuals can be found in Volume 22.
Boxes 3-10 contain original Declarations and Petitions filed in the 1844-1903 period. Documents in Boxes 3-9 have been assigned court numbers 1-8130 and are filed by court number. Documents in Box 10 were not assigned court numbers; they are filed by alphabetical segments. Generally both the Declaration and the Petition are included together. Copies of these documents can often be found in the volumes of Declarations and Petitions described above. When this does occur, the Card Index will reference the volume and page number and also the court number.
Declarations and a few Petitions filed in Ripon's Municipal Court, 1856-1906, are in Boxes 11-12. These are not indexed; they are filed by alphabetical segments and chronologically thereunder.
“Notices for Application for Admission to Citizenship, 1909-1933” are notices that were posted for the public, listing persons who were slated to appear in court to apply for admission to citizenship. Entries include applicant's place of birth, residence, place of arrival, witnesses, and date of hearing.
NOTE: In many cases, especially where more than one type of naturalization document is referenced or included in a particular Volume or Box, dates listed are core dates. Because the naturalization procedure has several steps spread over several years, steps taken outside the core dates listed will sometimes be documented in the same record set.
