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Around 1940, the Works Projects Administration (WPA) compiled
an eleven-volume index called Index to Records of Aliens' Declarations
of Intention and/or Oaths of Allegiance 1789-1880 in United States
Circuit Court, United States District Court, Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania, Quarter Sessions Court, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia.
This work was later edited and published by P. William Filby as
Philadelphia Naturalization Records. The Family Archive
contains information on more thant 113,000 male immigrants from
a variety of countries such as Germany, Austria, Hungary, Great
Britain and Ireland, France, Jamaica, and many others. Only those
individuals who applied for citizenship in the Philadelphia court
system between 1789 and 1880 are included.
Information is presented in a searchable index with four fields:
individual's name, country of origin, date the individual appeared
in court, and the court name. The records collected here are from
five Philadelphia courts: Court of Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions
Court Mayor's Court, Recorder's Court of Northern Liberties, General
Sessions Court, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, United States Circuit
Court, and United States District Court. Some individuals have
further information available for their record, such as the date
of the Declaration of Intent and Oath of Allegiance Occasionally
a mention is made of what name the individual signed on the document
— this can be a very valuable hint if an ancestor's name
was Americanized. Two examples of records are shown below.
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Document
Name: Francis Louis B. Vulgo Sauer
Country of Former Allegiance: Germany
Date of Declaration of Intent: Dec 07, 1848
Court of Declaration of Intent: Common Pleas
Date of Oath of Allegiance: Oct 02, 1852
Court of Oath of Allegiance: Common Pleas
Document
Name: Henry Benner
Country of Former Allegiance: Germany
Date of Declaration of Intent: Oct 09, 1848
Court of Declaration of Intent: Quarter Sessions
Document Signature: Henry Buchner
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August
11, 1999
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