ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP FOR AMERICANS OF ITALIAN ANCESTRY / DUAL CITIZENSHIP #4 UNITED STATES DOCUMENTS

You may know, because you already have some documents, where the ancestor you wish to claim as qualifying you for Italian citizenship was born.  However, sometimes family stories or genealogy quests are confused by not reading the fine print, so to speak.

For instance, a ship record may ask where the person was LAST LIVING or WHERE THEY LEFT, which could be a seaport.  That does not mean that they were BORN at this same location.  Some immigrants got to the seaport and lived and worked there a while to earn their tickets for the ship.  And as many Italian men were seasonal workers in America before deciding to remain and claim citizenship, you  might find the same person going back and forth and information differing from one ship record to the next. Of course these records can be valuable.  They may be consistent.  One might mention a large city.  Another a village near that large city.  So get your maps out and look.

There may be a mention of relatives such as a cousin on the ship or a wife left behind.

Once the decision was made to become a citizen, a DECLARATION OF INTENT will have been filed.  For naturalization, to become an American, the clock starts ticking with these "first papers."

Perhaps  you have their NATURALIZATION / American Citizenship papers which give more details.  With the realization that these are official and governmental papers, immigrants are more likely to record accurately where they were born.  The naturalization papers might say that they renounce Austria - which could mean they were born in what is now Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, or Italy. But they should still give the name of a village, town, or city.

Do some research on that region.  What is it's history?  When did it become part of Italy?  Were there any changes in borders and when?  At the time that your qualifying ancestor was born, was that place Italy?

Even if it was not, you may still qualify for Italian Citizenship.  You'll just have to keep doing your research. 

C 2020 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

***

As a side, years ago while doing some Italian genealogy for a client, I came across an odd situation.  Knowing that Italian men sometimes came and went as seasonal workers in the United States, I felt pretty sure that the ancestor had come over three times before settling in Brooklyn.  The man, with same name, first and last, the same height, left the same town, left the same port, on the same ship line.  On trip one and two, about a year apart, I felt sure this was the same man.  On trip three, another year later, it seemed to be the same man but for one detail.  This man was noted to have a massive scar on his forehead.  The client said there was no way that man was from their family.  But before it was all over, they admitted their family had been in organized crime in Italy and in America. 

THE MISSING 1890 CENSUS - THE PROBLEM OF LOCATING ANCESTORS - ESPECIALLY RECENT IMMIGRANTS BETWEEN 1880 and 1900

The United States federal 1890 census was destroyed.  

Only about 6000 counted people appear on what's left of it. 

The years between 1880 and 1900 were ones of major immigration in the United States and major changes in society and culture.  So that's 20 years for which the researcher must use alternative methods to find their ancestors, especially if they immigrated into the United States during that time.  It's a long period of time and millions of people who at first, when you depend on census, appear to be missing.

Among the records that can be used are County Histories (books often put together by and paid for my the citizens which include photos and bio/profiles which are more like yearbooks as well as more literary efforts by professors and historians), City Directories (pre phone book listings that individuals paid for, though there were advertisers and sponsors), STATE CENSUS, ship manifests that record the destination location or address, Military Records that show an individual enlisted, served, or received a pension or benefit as well as draft records,  NATURALIZATION RECORDS that begin with the Declaration of Intent, newspaper articles (such as one's I've found that list the names of the men who recently were sworn in as citizens) that may contain wedding announcements, business advertisements, as well as obituaries), and so on.

So many local historical society volunteers take pride in knowing about families in small towns especially I think its worth trying to talk to them. (I met one man whose family had been in Los Angeles for 6 generations beginning with Andras Pico, one of the founding fathers, at a celebration event at a local historical site.)

The Declaration of Intent (to become a citizen)  and the Ship Manifest (document of arrival in the United States at any one of several port, New York being the busiest) are two documents I always attempt to find for immigrants of the Industrial Age.  On the Declaration the person states how and where and on what date they entered the country.  So they will say the name of the ship and between these two you are likely to find one or two addresses for them in their early years in this country. Sometimes Ship Manifests, despite  the Ellis Island, Ancestry databases, and so on are difficult to find because they appear missing but are perhaps not showing up where they should be kept digitally.  So if you find the name of the ship and harbor and date of arrival in the Declaration of Intent  you may be able to find it using one of the alternative search features provided by stephenmorse.org  (http://stevenmorse.org/).  If the ship manifests still appears to be missing, try for records that document passengers leaving a port or arriving at a port in another country such as Germany or The United Kingdom. 

There's a romance to the era of the big steam ships and images of the ship and reading through the manifests to get a feeling for the passengers on the ship besides your ancestor makes for interesting reading and history, but perhaps the addresses and relationships give you the most information to go on with.

C Ancestry Worship - genealogy BlogSpot.com
2015  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

STEVENPMORSE ONE STEP LINKS - SOME FREE - SOME FOR PAY - ALL GOOD

STEVENMORSE ORG - LINKS TO ONE STEP MINING OF DATABASES

I've heard Stephen (the correct spelling of his first name - but it's Steven on the website) speak a couple times and his enthusiasm is contagious!  If you find frustration using another database, such as Ellis Island, using his utility may help you get to MISSING PAGES, and ALSO THE FIRST and SECOND CLASS PASSENGERS!