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Original Naturalization Records: A Reliable Source for Birth Dates?

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Figure 1
Data Groups Reported in the SCGS Study

I.    Immigrant: name, age, residence, occupation, birth date, birthplace

II.   Immigrant: name, emigration from, arrival date, arrival port/place, ship, renunciation, last foreign address

III.  Immigrant: name, date of first continuous residence in U.S., date of first continuous residence in California, declaration date, declaration place, date final papers signed by the court, date of admission/denial, comments

IV.  Immigrant’s spouse: name, birth date, birthplace, residence, marriage place, marriage date

V.   Immigrant’s children: number, names, birth dates, birthplaces, residence(s)

VI.  Witnesses: names, occupations, residences

migrant reports of events long past and easily forgotten; others are more suspect. In her book on naturalization, Loretto Szucs reminds us that “Many of these old records are not going to give us precise answers—and if they do, the information may be less than reliable. Sometimes, incorrect answers were given quite innocently and only because the immigrant had honestly forgotten. Others may have provided the wrong dates of arrival in hopes that officials would not know the difference and that the wait to be eligible for naturalization would not be so long.”⁵

Among the findings of the Sonoma County project, most surprising were the instances of conflicting information that, presumably, would have been well known to the immigrant. Those unexpected inconsistencies piqued the interest of the SCGS volunteers and prompted an analytical mini-study. Abstractors designed criteria to screen specifically the unanticipated errors, with particular attention to multiple conflicting birth dates.

THE RECORDS

From its founding in 1906, the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization⁶ collected information about immigrants who declared their intent to become citizens, and many of whom eventually filed final papers. Complete original naturalization records for Sonoma County from 1906 through 1930, abstracted in this project, yielded a wealth of family data.⁷ Despite some incomplete records, the compiled data provided up to thirty-five informational items for any given

⁵ Loretto Dennis Szucs, They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1998), 108.

⁶ Forerunner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

⁷ Naturalization Records, volumes 10–22, Sonoma County Archives, Sonoma County Library Annex, Santa Rosa, Ca.

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National Genealogical Society Quarterly

Figure 2
Birth Date Discrepancies in 3,413 Entries

immigrant. While forms and types of questions changed over the years, the body of facts gathered was nevertheless considerable. It fell logically into six groupings, which provide the structure of the final published report. The first three give information about the immigrant; the others tell about spouses, children, and witnesses.

Extant records fill thirteen books in the county archives. Eight of them, measuring 11 by 17 inches, contain applications for final papers;⁸ the remaining 8-by-11-inch volumes hold only declarations of intent. All have pre-printed forms for each applicant. Information for final papers was handwritten by the clerk and signed by the petitioner and the clerk; information on the declaration forms was typed and signed by the declarant and the clerk.

Once a single alphabetical list of the records had been compiled, multiple entries for given individuals could be spotted and compared. It was no surprise to see that many immigrants have more than one record—and, in some cases, up to four records. If two appear, they usually consist of the declaration and final papers. More than two entries may indicate that citizenship was denied on the first try. There were several common reasons for denial: 1) the applicant failed the naturalization test; 2) witnesses were unqualified; 3) the applicant did not pursue the petition; 4) the applicant had filed a claim for World War I draft exemption. What was surprising was that certain data concerning a particular individual, such as birth information, which one could reasonably expect to be consistent on each document, often was inconsistent.

DISCREPANCIES IN BIRTH DATES

The project comprised 3,413 entries. Forty-three individuals, or 1.3 percent, had conflicting birth dates recorded in multiple files. Though this is not a high

⁸ Many also contain declarations of intent, sometimes referred to as “first papers.”

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error rate, it is important for genealogists to take the discrepancies into account. Researchers use a variety of sources to verify birth dates. When those alternative sources include naturalization records, this fact can be significant. More than half of the discrepancies indicated date differences from a few days to almost a month. In ten instances, differences ranged from one to six years, and one record showed a twenty-three-year variance. That case is almost certainly attributable to clerical error, because the “current date” appears where the applicant’s birth date should have been. Figure 2 shows date discrepancies exceeding one month.

CONCLUSION

With respect to one variable only—the birth date—the SCGS study supports Szucs’s assertion that naturalization records may not provide “precise answers” or, if they do, the information may be unreliable.⁹ The findings underscore the larger lesson that researchers need to view all historical records with a good dose of skepticism. When confronted with discrepancies, genealogists must seek the most rational explanation, drawing conclusions only after a careful analysis of all extant records, and considering how, when, why, and by whom the records were created.

⁹ Szucs, They Became Americans, 108.

Scenery as a Cure

[Missouri Republican, Saint Louis, 10 June, 1844.]

The Western Expositor of the 1^st inst., says a company of young men started from this place a few days ago on a hunting excursion to the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of regaining their health. Many of them looked more like tenants of the grave than living beings, and we trust that the resident of a few months in the mountains, breathing the purest atmosphere on earth and enjoying a never ending change of scenery, may have the effect of restoring them to good health again.

Captain Andrew W. Sublette is at the head of the expedition. The following is a list of the invalids: Capt. Andrew W. Sublette, James H. Marshall, C. C. Hyman, James P. Ketchum, James M. Cabrett, John F. Easton, Michael Daugherty, Jerome Brawner, C. J. Burk, Lewis Hume, St[.] Louis; Nelson Weston, Wm. L. Wynn, New Orleans; M. J. Bryan, Platte County, Missouri.

—Contributed by Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG