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Trying to find St. Louis Naturalization records can seem confusing. This webpage is designed to help sort out the records created in the Naturalization process and hopefully offer some tips for finding your ancestor's citizenship papers. It is divided into two main sections, before and after 1906. The records created prior to Sept. 27, 1906 offer minimal information about the applicant. After that date much more information is given. See the different sections for details. The final section on this page briefly describes the types of records created in the Naturalization process.St. Louis Naturalization Records Before Sept. 27, 1906...Naturalizations in the city of St. Louis were generally done in either the St. Louis Circuit Court or a related court (in the Civil Courts building), or the Federal Courts (U.S. District Court and U.S. Circuit Court). If your ancestor was Naturalized prior to Sept. 27, 1906 he probably went to the St. Louis Circuit Court (or a related court in the same building). There are online and microfilmed indexes available for naturalization records for the St. Louis Circuit Court in this time frame...
You can order copies of St. Louis Naturalization records for the St. Louis Circuit Court created prior to Sept. 27, 1906 by mail from the... Circuit Clerk's Office ATTN: Immigration/Naturalization Records Civil Courts Building 10 N. Tucker Street St. Louis, Missouri 63101 You should consult the microfilmed or online indexes before contacting the court. Note that the Naturalization records themselves contain basically the same information that you will find in the index. If you write to the court, provide as much information as you know: full name, date or year of birth, date of Naturalization, volume and page number. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope with your request. There is a fee. Pre-1906 Naturalizations done in Federal Courts NARA's Central Plains Region (Kansas City, MO) has a small index of St. Louis naturalizations done in Federal Courts. If you find someone in this index then you should contact them for copies of the records. Declaration of Intention Records (before Sept. 27, 1906) Surviving St. Louis Circuit Court declarations are indexed in the online database ("St. Louis Naturalization Index Cards 1816-1906") listed above. Many St. Louis Declaration of Intention records in this time period have not survived. A small number of declarations of intention were done in the Federal U.S. District & Circuit Courts. These have been indexed online...
The FHL also has microfilmed copies of many St. Louis Naturalization records. You can find what material the FHL has at the links belwow. Note: the two groups have inter-mixed records (City & County) so check both.
St. Louis Naturalization Records After Sept. 26, 1906...The U.S. District Court Naturalization Records formerly kept at the Federal Courts Building (at 12th & Market, across the street from the Civil Courts Building) have been moved to the Kansas City, MO branch of the National Archives (NARA). They have these records through 1991.Contact... NARA Kansas City Branch Tell them you are looking for a St. Louis Naturalization record from Record Group 21 (Records of the District Courts of the United States/Missouri, Eastern District). Provide as much information as you know: name, date of birth, date of declaration of intention (if known), date of naturalization (if known). There will be a fee for this service. Some of these records are also on microfilm and available from the St. Louis County Library & the FHL. You may want to check there first. See the links listed in the microfilm section above. The following online indexes are available for the U.S. District & Circuit Court records... District Court Naturalization Index (Declarations of Intention) covers October 1906 to December 1928 U.S. Circuit Court Online Index - Declarations of Intention (covers 4 Mar 1907-29 Dec 1911) District Court - Online Index to Naturalization Stubs 1907-1929 Types of Naturalization Records
Helpful Clues in the Census... Year of Naturalization is given in the 1920 census A 1920 Census Index for Missouri linked to actual census images is available online (requires payment) Sources & Resources... Christina Schaefer: Guide to Naturalization Records of the United States, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997. National Archives Trust Fund Board, Anne Bruner Eales & Robert M. Kvasnicka (editors): Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives of the United States, Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2000; Pages 87 & 97. |