1832 Declaration of Intent includes name, birthplace, age, settlement location

Before 1906, the declaration of intent generally contains more genealogically useful information than the petition. Petitions before 1906 usually show only a name, former allegiance, and date of naturalization. The declaration may include the alien's exact date of immigration into the United States.

Note that all naturalizations prior to Sept. 27, 1906, are termed Old Law (OL). Any replacement had to be issued by BCIS on an OL certificate (There will be an OL number at top right). These C-Files have genealogy valule because many pre-1906 court naturalization records contain little or no information. The application for the OL replacement contains information often unavailable elsewhere. Only BCIS has the OL series of C-Files containing the applications for replacement. It is important to note that OL certificate files exist ONLY when the following three conditions occured:

• the person was naturalized before 1906 AND
• they lost their original certificate AND
• they applied for and got a replacement AFTER 1906.