General
The Green Lake County Naturalization Records, 1858-1949, consist of three sub-series: 1) Declarations of Intention and Declarations Index; 2) Petitions, Certificates, Certificate Stub Books, and indexes, and 3) ancillary documents.
The original system of identifying volumes by number or letter was retained because the indexes are often keyed to this system. To eliminate confusion when requesting a particular volume, the researcher should specify not only the volume number but also the type of volume (e.g. Declarations of Intention) and dates.
For preservation purposes some volumes have been dismantled and placed in boxes. For these volumes the contents list below gives the volume number in parentheses ( ) for identification purposes, and the box number for retrieval purposes. Volume numbers that appear in brackets [ ] are numbers that were assigned by the archivist.
All records are available in both original format and on microfilm.
Declarations of Intention
The CARD INDEX [TO DECLARATIONS], 1858-1949, provides access to the Declarations in Volumes 1-10, but not to those in Boxes 5-7. Cards are arranged alphabetically by last name. Entries give the volume, page, and year of filing the Declaration, the year and place of birth, and the year and place of arrival in the United States. Not all of this information is given for each person, but the key information for finding a Declaration (volume and page) is always given.
DECLARATIONS in Volumes 1-10 are arranged roughly by the date filed. In addition, each declaration filed after 1906 is assigned a unique document number. Often post-1906 volumes contain an index in the front of each volume, arranged in alphabetical segments by the first letter of the surname and more or less chronologically therein.
DECLARATIONS in Boxes 5-7, 1858-1906, are not indexed. They are filed in alphabetical segments and appear to be duplicates of those in Volumes 1-4.
Petitions and Certificates of Naturalization
Data elements found on entries from the CARD INDEX [TO PETITIONS AND CERTIFICATES], 1859-1946, include the following:
1) “Naturalization Record” gives the volume and page and refers to the Certificates of Naturalization, 1858-1894, in Volumes 1 and 1A, and to the Petitions, 1895-1929, in Volumes 2-10. There are no Petitions for 1859-1894, but the Certificates for that period provide essentially the same information.
2) “Certificate of Naturalization” gives the Certificate number, the volume and page and actually refers to the Certificate of Naturalization Stub Books, 1908-1929.
3) “Declaration of Intention and Naturalization Record” gives the volume and page and refers to the Petitions, 1929-1946, in Volumes 1-3, located in Box 10.
4) On rare occasions this index will also show where the Declaration of Intention is recorded. When it does, it gives the volume and page.
CERTIFICATES OF NATURALIZATION, 1859-1894, are arranged in volumes chronologically by date filed. These certificates often act as petitions as well as certificates since at this time period citizenship was usually granted shortly after filing the petition.
CERTIFICATES, 1908-1929, are in the form of the “stub” retained by the Clerk of Court when the original was given to the new citizen. The arrangement is chronological. Many stub receipts in this series were not completely filled out: some contain only the citizen's signature. A complete Certificate can be obtained from the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service.
PETITIONS, 1895-1946, are arranged chronologically by date filed. Consistent with the Declarations filed after 1906, each post-1906 Petition is assigned a unique document number. Declarations are usually attached to the petition, as are related documents such as Certificate of Arrival, Affidavit of Witnesses and correspondence. Often post-1906 volumes contain an index in the front of each volume, arranged in alphabetical segments by the first letter of surname and more or less chronologically therein.
Ancillary Records
The “CERTIFIED LISTS OF NATURALIZED CITIZENS” from Marquette County, 1848-1858, certified by the Marquette County Clerk of Circuit Court in 1867, was probably created to ease the work of the Clerk of Circuit Court in Green Lake County. Green Lake County was created from Marquette County in 1858 and this list was probably used by Green Lake County to avoid having to check the Marquette County records each time a resident, who had filed a Declaration prior to 1858, came to the court to file a Petition.
CITIZENSHIP PETITIONS GRANTED AND DENIED, 1930-1947, consists of the standard semi-annual report the court made to the Naturalization Service. It lists the court's Petition number, the name of the petitioner, and the petitioner's new name if he/she exercised the name change option available to petitioners.
The DECLARATION OF INTENTION AND NATURALIZATION INDEX, 1894-1902, records transactions of the court from 1894 to 1902. It gives the date the Declaration was filed and the “Date of Naturalization,” which generally is the date of the Petition. If a Petition was filed during this period and the Petitioner had filed his/her Declaration prior to the period, that Declaration will be recorded in this volume even though it occurred prior to 1894. However, the reverse is not true. If a Declaration was filed in this period and was followed by a Petition after 1902, the latter will not be recorded in this volume.
