immigrant naturalization records to their databases. It's been awhile
since I did a search on my mother's immigrant ancestors for those
records, so I decided to try them again. I didn't have any luck with
her German Luick and Offinger great grandparents. I'd started with
them because the names aren't as common as her Irish grandfather,
John McFarland. After all, this is Massachusetts, a prime destination
for Irish immigrants for the past 150 years, and I've found a multitudes
of John McFarlands in previous searches, none of whom matched the
information I already had.
However, this time was different. I got a hit on the U.S. Naturalization
Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project).
I'm not sure I can show the image here since Ancestry is a paid site
and I don't want to violate their copyright. What it shows is an index
card with "M 216" in ink on the upper left hand corner. The rest of
the information on the card is entered by typewriter:
Family Name: McFarland
Given Name or Names: John
Address: Boston
Certificate No.(or vol. and page): 128-113
Title and Location of Court: USCC BOSTON, MASS.
Country of birth or allegiance: Ireland
When born(or age): Nov.29, 1853
Date and port of arrival in U.S.:
Date of naturalization: Oct.4, 1880
Names and addresses of witnesses:
Two entries were left blank and the caps are as typed on the card.
The information I have on John gives his DOB as 28Nov 1852
but that came from a letter written by my cousin (also named John
McFarland) so it's possible that he was off by a year, or that the
information on the form is incorrect. It would have been nice if
there was an actual street address listed and the port of entry,
but this record is close enough to give me hope that it is indeed
my greatgrandfather John McFarland.
Now I need to go about the business of finding out how to get a
copy of the actual record.
By the way, Ancestry has made access to their immigration records
free until Sept 6th in celebration of our immigrant ancestors.
2 comments:
Bill, you can order a copy of the naturalization papers through nara.gov, when I ordered it took 1 day to get it in the mail, it came with a cpoy of the naturalization record and his intention papres, which will give you his address at the time and his specifics (ht, wt, hair and eye color)
My husbands line also has McFarlands in it. Not sure if I mentioned this to you before. I will have to get o ut his information and see if they match up at all.
Good luck on ordering the record.
Terri
Thanks for the link, Terri!
Are your husband's McFarlands
from Boston?
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