General
The Vernon County Naturalization Records consist of an Index to Citizenship (1857-1935), Declarations of Intention (1853-1947), Oaths and Court Orders (1857-1903), Petitions (1904-1943), Certificate of Naturalization Stub Books (1907-1927), Orders Granting and Denying Petitions (1930-1947), and Repatriations (1941-1944).
The original system of identifying volumes by number was retained because the Index to Citizenship is keyed to this system. Thus, when requesting a particular volume, the researcher must be sure to specify not only the volume number, but also the type of record and the inclusive dates of the volume. (For example, “Volume 3, Petitions, 1913-1914”).
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.
All records are available in both original format and on microfilm
Indexes
The Index to Citizenship (1857-1935) lists Declaration, Petition, and Certificate information for those individuals who completed the naturalization process in Vernon County. It is arranged in alphabetical segments by first letter of surname and chronologically by date of Petition therein.
For Declarations the Index gives the date and county in which the Declaration was filed and sometimes the volume number and page or Declaration number. Declaration numbers are shown in parentheses on the Contents List. For Petitions the Index gives the date, volume number, and page or Petition number (listed in parentheses on the Contents List). However, references to “Volume 1” prior to 1906 are actually references to the volume of Oaths and Court Orders (1857-1903), which are the only parts of the Petitions still in existence for those years. To find Certificates of Naturalization the key information to note is the Certificate number, which is also listed in parentheses on the Contents List.
Not only does the Index to Citizenship not index Declarations for those who failed to complete the naturalization process, but also it appears to skip some who did complete the process. Hence, if a name is not found in this index, the researcher should consult the indexes at the beginning of each volume. These indexes are grouped in alphabetical segments and are generally chronological thereunder. They list the page number or document number.
