General
The Green County Naturalization Records consist of the Index to Naturalizations, Declarations of Intention, Petitions, Certificates of Naturalization, various indexes to these records, several Depositions, lists of Citizenship Petitions Granted and Denied, and Notice of Application for admission to citizenship.
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. These volume numbers are designated by parentheses in the contents list below for identification purposes; the box number is listed for retrieval purposes. Other volumes though not dismantled have also been in boxed.
Some records are available in both original format and on microfilm.
Records
Researchers should begin by consulting the Index to Naturalizations, Volume 1. It is an alphabetical index recording individual's name, volume and page of Declarations of Intention, country of birth or allegiance, date of Declaration and court in which declared, date of final admission, volume and page of Certificates of Naturalization and Petitions, and number of document (if any given).
Bound Declarations can also be located using the Index to Intentions and Naturalizations, Volumes 1 and 2. These indexes provide the same information as the main Index to Naturalizations and were probably used to compile the main index. Researchers should use Volume 1 since the names are in more strict alphabetical order in this volume than in Volume 2, where the names are only in alphabetical segments by first letter of surname. The post-1906 Declaration volumes also contain internal indexes.
The Index to Declarations of Intentions index pre-1906 Declarations of Intention Volumes 2 and 3 which do not contain internal indexes. This index appears to have been compiled from the Register of Declarations of Intentions (Volumes 1 and 2). Researchers do not necessarily need to refer to any of these volumes since the information has been copied into the Index to Intentions and Naturalizations and is more complete in Volume 1 of that index.
A small quantity of index cards from 1951-1954 is found in Box 10. The information from these cards is transcribed in the Index to Naturalizations, Volume 1.
Certificates of Naturalization and Petition volumes contain internal indexes at the front of each volume, with the exception of Certificates, Volume 2 which has no index. Again, the Index to Naturalizations will provide access to specific Certificate and Petition volume and paper numbers. Certificates for 1907-1925 are in the form of stub books. The original Certificates and all Certificates after 1925 must be obtained from the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The loose papers located in Boxes 7-10 consist mainly of early Declarations. These documents appear to be the originals of the records recorded in pre-1906 Declarations of Intention Volumes A and 1-3. Scattered Petitions and Depositions of Witnesses are usually included. There is no index to these documents; however, they are filed in alphabetical segments by surname.
