California, Southern District Court (Central) Naturalization Index - FamilySearch Historical Records: Difference between revisions

California, Southern District Court (Central) Naturalization Index - FamilySearch Historical Records (view source)

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 == What Do I Do Next? ==
-When you have located your ancestor in the naturalization index, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family.
+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?===
-Use naturalization records to:
-*Learn an immigrant’s place of origin
+*Use the information in the records to find records in his or her country of origin such as emigrations, port records, ship’s manifests, birth, christening, marriage, and census records.
-*Confirm their date of arrival
 *Learn foreign and “Americanized” names
-*Find records in his or her country of origin such as emigrations, port records, or ship’s manifests
+*Use the information in each record to find additional family members.
-*Some of these records show the orginal name of the individual and the name they are using in America, this can be helpful in locating them in their home country
+*Repeat this process with additional family member’s records to find more generations of the family.
-*Look for the Declaration of Intent soon after the immigrant arrived, then look for the Naturalization Petition five years later, when the residency requirement would have been met. Look for naturalization records in federal courts and then in state, county, or city courts.
+*[[California Church Records|Church Records]] often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.
-*An individual may have filed the first and final papers in different courts and sometimes in a different state if the person moved. Immigrants who were younger than 18 when they arrived did not need to file a Declaration of Intent as part of the process.
-*If your ancestor had a common name, be sure to look at all the entries for a name before you decide which is correct.
-*Continue to search the naturalization records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who may have naturalized in the same area or nearby.
+=== I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now? ===
-*The witnesses named on naturalization records may have been older relatives of the person in the naturalization process. Search for their naturalization's.
+*Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc.  Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
-*You may want to obtain the naturalization records of every person who shares your ancestor’s surname if they lived in the same county or nearby. You may not know how or if they are related, but the information could lead you to more information about your own ancestors.
+*Collect entries for every person who has the same surname.  This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records.
-*These cards may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.
+*If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
+*Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images.
+*Remember that sometimes individuals went by [http://usgenweb.org/research/nicknames.shtml nicknames] or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for [http://genealogy.about.com/od/first_names/fl/nickname-given-name-equivalents.htm these names] as well.
+*Search the indexes and records of [[California, United States Genealogy]].
+*Search in the [[California Archives and Libraries]].
-===I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?===
-*Check for variant spellings. Realize that the indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings and misinterpretations.
-*Try a different index if there is one for the years needed. You may also need to search the naturalization records year by year.
-*Search the indexes of nearby counties.
-*Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.
 {{Tip|Don't overlook {{FHL|California, Naturalization and Citizenship|keywords|disp}} items in the FamilySearch Library Catalog.}}