Manuscript Collection
South Carolina Naturalization Records Microfilm Collection - Accession 921
Files
Identifier
Accession 921
Inclusive Dates
1790-1906
Restrictions
Open under the rules and regulations of the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections
Collection Size
1 reel of microfilm
Language
English
Scope and Content Note
This collection consists of a microfilm copy of records documenting aliens admitted to United States citizenship by U.S. courts in South Carolina from 1790 to 1906. The records reproduce four volumes of annotated lists compiled from naturalization records maintained by the U.S. District and Circuit Courts for the District of South Carolina. The original records are part of Record Group 21, Records of District Courts of the United States, and are housed at the National Archives and Records Administration regional facility in Atlanta, Georgia.
The collection includes lists of individuals admitted to citizenship as well as notices of intention to become citizens. Entries generally provide information such as the applicant’s name, age, occupation, nation or place of birth, residence, date and place of arrival in the United States, date of declaration of intention, and date of admission to citizenship, although the amount of information varies by volume and time period. The records are arranged alphabetically by the initial letter of the applicant’s surname and chronologically thereunder by date of admission or declaration.
The microfilm contains the following volumes: Aliens Admitted as Citizens (1790–1860); Citizenship and Notices of Intention (1866–1886); Record of Citizenship and Notices of Intention (1876–1906); and Record of Citizenship and Notices of Intention (1886–1906). The collection provides valuable documentation for the study of immigration, naturalization, genealogy, and the legal history of citizenship in South Carolina during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Provenance
South Carolina Naturalization Records Microfilm Collection was donated to the Archives by Louise Pettus on November 13, 1996.
Copyright
For information concerning copyright please contact the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections at Winthrop University.
Finding Aid Citation
Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections, Winthrop University, "South Carolina Naturalization Records Microfilm Collection - Accession 921". Finding Aid 1619.
https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/manuscriptcollection_findingaids/1619
Additional Notes
“Introduction
On the single roll of this microfilm publication are reproduced four volumes of annotated lists of names of persons admitted to U.S. citizenship by the U.S. courts in South Carolina from 1790 through 1906. The volumes are part of Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21, and are housed in the Archives Branch of the Federal Archives and Records Center, Atlanta, Ga.
The first naturalization act passed by Congress on March 26, 1790 ( Stat. 103), provided that an alien who desired to become a citizen should apply to “any common law court of record, in any one of the states wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least.” Under this and later laws, aliens were naturalized in Federal courts and also in State and local courts.
A notice, or declaration, of intention normally preceded a petition to become a citizen by 2 years or more, but the notice was sometimes not required if the citizen had an honorary discharge from certain military service or had entered the country when a minor. An order of admission to citizenship was typically listed in a district of circuit court minute book on the date the judge so ordered. The four volumes reproduced in this microfilm publication constitute a list of persons admitted to citizenship as recorded in the district and circuit court records for the District of South Carolina. These lists were probably compiled from naturalization papers. The pre-Civil War papers were presumably lost during the war. The papers for the post-Civil War period are in the Archives Branch in Atlanta.
Each of the four volumes is alphabetically arranged by the initial letter of the surname of the applicant. Within each letter of the alphabet the names are listed chronologically by the date of the order of admission to citizenship. The first volume, 1790-1860, contains the following information: name of alien, age, nation of birth, U.S. place of residence, occupation, and date of the order of admission. Not all entries are complete. The second volume, 1866-1886, contains the following information: name of citizen, occupation, place of birth, place and date of arrival in the United States, age, and date of the order of admission. A few entries give the date of notice of intention rather than the date of admission. The third volume, 1876-1906, and the fourth volume, 1886-1906, contain the same entries as the second volume, with the addition of the date of notice of intention. The names listed in Volume 3 are different from those listed in Volume 4.
--Mary Ann Hawkins wrote this introduction and prepared these records for filming. Robin Zeltner was the editor.”
Contents of microfilm:
1st volume: Aliens Admitted as Citizens (1790-1860)
2nd volume: Citizenship and Notices of Intention (1866-1886)"
3rd volume: Record of Citizenship and Notices of Intention (1876-1906)
4th volume: Record of Citizenship and Notices of Intention (1886-1906)"
*Introduction is on the first page of the Microfilm