Wisconsin Naturalization and Citizenship

United States U.S. Naturalizations  Wisconsin  Naturalizations

History
Naturalization records have been filed in local, state, and federal courts in Wisconsin. Wisconsin courts include municipal, county, circuit, and the state Supreme Court. Federal courts include the U.S. district and circuit courts. Each court had its own style of record keeping before 1906.

Three types of records were created during the naturalization process: declarations of intention, petitions for naturalization, and certificates of naturalization and citizenship. Each record may give details about a person, such as age, residence, country or city of origin, date and port of arrival, name of the ship, names of spouse and children with their birth dates and places, or current address.

Records for earlier years usually contain less information than those after 1906, when the federal court system for naturalization was revised and details such as birth date and place, physical description, and marital status are usually given. See United States Naturalization and Citizenship for a more complete discussion of the naturalization process and the records created.

Availability
Some of the older records of citizenship are found in court minutes and not in separate books. The records of approximately two-thirds of the counties are on microfilm at the Area Research Centers of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The Family History Library has microfilm copies of records from some Wisconsin counties and it continues to acquire records of additional counties. From Dane County, for example, the library has:


 * Circuit court admissions, 1855-1906
 * Circuit court declarations, 1848-1906
 * Circuit court petitions and oaths, 1841-1906
 * Municipal court declarations, 1875-1906
 * Municipal court index to declarations, 1861-1906
 * U.S. district court declarations of intention, 1841-47
 * General card index to various courts, 1800-1907

The Family History Library has Naturalization Records, 1840-1900. Wisconsin Supreme Court. Wisconsin Territory Supreme Court. (7 microfilm)

Index to Citizenship records by Wisconsin Historical Society

The Milwaukee circuit and municipal court records of 1836 to 1941 are at:

Milwaukee County Historical Society 910 North World 3rd Street Milwaukee, WI 53203-1591 Telephone: 414-273-8288 Fax: 414-273-3268 Internet: http://www.milwaukeecountyhistsoc.org/

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 were created by the court and sent to the INS. To access these records, use the Genealogy Program at www.uscis.gov You may also contact the National Archives—Great Lakes Region,  for naturalization records. The archives branch has records of the U.S. District Court from 1866 to 1921 and an extensive index to other federal records.

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

Wisconsin, Dane County, Naturalizaton Records (Familysearch Historical Records)