Rhode Island Naturalization Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Rhode Island

What is in the Collection?
The records in this collection consist of naturalization declarations and petitions for the U.S. District Courts of Rhode Island from 1907 to 1991. These records were digitized at the National Archive at Boston, Waltham, Massachusetts and are a collaboration with the National Archives and Records Administration(NARA) and Ancestry.com. These records are part of Records of District Courts of the United States Record Group 21 in the Records of the District Courts of the United States.

General Information About Naturalization Records “’Naturalization’” is a voluntary process through which immigrants can become American citizens. By becoming naturalized citizens, immigrants are granted the same rights, privileges and protections as natural born citizens. Individual States handled naturalizations until 1906 when the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization standardized immigration laws and procedures. Naturalization to become a U.S. citizen is a two-part process: The Declaration of Intent to Naturalize, or First Papers, and the Naturalization Record (including the Naturalization Petition), or Final Papers. The general requirements for citizenship include residency in one U.S. state for one year and in the United States for five years The First Papers were normally filed five years before the Final Papers because of the five-year residency requirement to become a citizen. Naturalization papers are an important source of information about an immigrant's nation of origin, his foreign and “Americanized” names, residence, and date of arrival. Naturalization records were created to process naturalizations and keep track of immigrants in the United States. Naturalization records are generally reliable, but may occasionally be subject to error or falsification. Be sure to search all possible spellings for the surname of the person for whom you are looking. Think about how the surname was pronounced, and how it sounded in the immigrant’s probable accent. Immigrants or their families often changed or “Americanized” the spelling and pronunciation of their names especially their surname, thus the surname may be spelled differently in records that were closer to your ancestor's immigration date. Also, because immigrants were allowed to naturalize in any court, they often selected the most convenient court. For example, if an immigrant lived in Maine, but worked in Vermont or New Hampshire, they may have gone to a court closer to work.

What Can these Records Tell Me?
The following information can be found in these records:
 * Name
 * Place of Birth
 * Age
 * Date of Birth
 * Home Address at time of Naturalization
 * Physical Description and Picture
 * Last Place of foreign residence
 * Country of birth
 * Occupation

How Do I Search the Collection?
You can search the index, view the images or both. Before using this collection, it is helpful to know: •	Name of the person you are looking for

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. For more tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
Whenever possible, view the original records to verify the information and to find additional information that might not be reported. These pieces of information can lead you to additional records and family members.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Add any new information to your records
 * Check the image the index was taken from to see if there is additional information
 * Make sure to fully transcribe and cite the record entry for future reference; see the section Citing this Collection for assistance. Save or print a copy of the image
 * Use the information to find more details about the person you are looking for or for other relatives
 * Search the index to see if other family members who may have immigrated with the person you are looking for are listed and have additional information or leads

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * Look at the actual image of the record to verify the information found in the online description, if possible
 * Check name spelling and search under variations or under nicknames
 * Check other possible ports of entry

Citing this Collection
Collection Citation:

Record Citation:

Image Citation:

Top of Page