Georgia Naturalization and Citizenship

Availability
Naturalizations were primarily recorded in local superior, district, or city court minutes. Most of these documents are preserved on microfilm at the Georgia Department of Archives and History. The Family History Library has copies of a few of these records. From Savannah and Chatham County, for example, the library has files of the Savannah City Court (1904-1906), and the superior court (1801-1910), and a combined index (1792-1908). The records include aliens' declarations, registers of citizenship, petitions, minors' papers, affidavits, and court orders.

Federal court naturalizations are discussed in Marion Hemperley, "Federal Naturalization Oaths: Savannah Georgia, 1790-1860," in the Georgia Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, number 4 (1967): pp. 454-87.

Post-1906 Records
In 1906 the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) was created, forms were standardized and duplicate records created by the court were sent to the INS. To access these records, download a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) form from www.uscis.gov, fill it in and send it to the address listed on the form. You may also contact the National Archives—Southeast Region (Atlanta) at http://www.archives.gov/southeast/ for records of the U.S. District Court (1906-1948) and the U.S. Circuit Court (1903-6).