General
The Portage County Naturalization Records, 1844-1956, consist of the Indexes to Citizenship, Declarations of Intention, Petitions, Certificates of Naturalization and Certificate Stubs, and ancillary records.
For preservation purposes, some volumes were dismantled and placed in boxes, however the original system of numbering volumes was retained since the indexes are often keyed to this system. For these volumes, the container list gives the volume number in parentheses ( ) for identification purposes, and the box and reel number for location purposes. Volume numbers in brackets [ ] were assigned by the Archives.
Almost all records are available both in original paper form and on microfilm.
Indexes
Researchers should begin by consulting the indexes. For persons naturalized from 1856 through 1884, use the "Index to Final Papers, 1856-1884." Entries are alphabetical by initial letter of the last name and chronological thereunder. The entry gives the year the Final Naturalization Papers were filed. Final papers may also provide the year that the Declaration of Intention was filed, and if the filing was done in Portage County, the Declaration can be found in this series.
For persons completing the naturalization process from 1907 through 1954, use the “Index to Citizenship.” Entries are roughly alphabetical by last name, and index Declarations, Petitions, and Certificates.
For persons naturalized between 1884 and 1906, and for persons not found in the other indexes, use the card index. Entries are arranged alphabetically by last name and index Petitions and Certificates. The years covered overlap those in the “Index to Citizenship” so many of the cards duplicate the entries in the “Index” volume.
Records
The Declarations of Intention date 1844-1953. Declarations from 1844-1906 are filed by year and alphabetically thereunder. Declarations from 1907-1953 are filed by declaration number, which approximates chronological order. Several of the post-1907 volumes have been disbound and placed in archival folders and boxes. Each volume contains an index.
The Petitions for Citizenship date 1906-1954 and are arranged by filing date and assigned a unique number. Each volume contains an index.
Naturalization Certificates date 1856-1906. Disbound Certificates for 1903-1906 duplicate those in the volumes. Each volume contains an index. Certificates for 1926-1936 are in the form of certificate stubs. After 1906, local clerks retained only the certificate stub books. The stubs are arranged by certificate number which is roughly chronological.
Ancillary documents include one folder of Orders Granting and Denying Citizenship, 1929-1956 (no index), Facts for Declaration of Intention, 1913-1921, and Notices of Application for Admission to Citizenship, 1907-1920.
The Facts for Declarations are worksheets used by the Clerk of Courts to gather information for filling out the Petition form. The information contained in the form is identical to that in the Petition form. The Fact sheets are arranged by date filed and assigned a consecutive number which becomes the petition number. This group of records contains Facts sheets for Petitions [1]-582, however each petition does not have a corresponding Fact sheet present.
The Notices of Application for Admission to Citizenship are monthly summaries of Petitions filed. The Notices were required to be posted, usually in the courthouse.
