Did your ancestor immigrate to the United States and become a naturalized citizen?
Did your ancestor immigrate to the United States and become a naturalized citizen?
This index of naturalization cards from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois covers petitions made by residents of northern Illinois, northwest Indiana, southern and eastern Wisconsin, and eastern Iowa. The index comprises series M1285 from the National Archives and Records Administration.
The records have the highest concentration from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, with a few outliers.
Each result will provide you with a transcript and image of the original record. Transcripts will generally provide the following details:
The provided images of the original records may be able to offer additional details. Further information may include names and addresses of witnesses, the name and place of the naturalization court, your ancestor’s address, and your ancestor’s date and port of arrival in the United States. These details can aid you in flushing out how and when your ancestor relocated to America. You may also uncover additional family members as witnesses were occasionally relatives of the individual petitioning for citizenship.
Begin your search broadly with only a name. Then narrow your search by including a year or place if needed.
Occasionally, given names were abbreviated or only an initial was recorded. Try searching by just a last name if your ancestor is proving difficult to find. Conversely, some last names were not transcribed due to the poor image quality of some cards. In such an instance, try searching by a given name or narrow results using year and place fields. You can also use the previous and next arrows in the image viewer to scan through the entire collection.