I am researching my family's geneaology. I have naturalization numbers - how can

Question:

I am researching my family's geneaology. I have naturalization numbers - how can I get more information?

I have tried ancestry.com, etc... no use. I would like a direct link to a service that provides detailed info about a person's immigration (ie country of origin, family, point of embarquement, etc... ) Any ideas? Should I just contact the INS? (What is the new name of the INS? How do I access old records?) Please help - any suggestions are appreciated. Thankyou!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Go to the site below for a very good summary of the naturalization process - it includes an explanation of types of papers, locations, etc.

There are three basic types of naturalization documents:

Declaration of Intention ("First Papers")
Filed soon after immigrant's arrival.

Petition for Naturalization ("Final Papers")
Filed after required waiting period (usually 5 years). These papers contain the most information.

Certificate of Citizenship
Given to new citizen to take home. Does not provide much genealogical information, but useful for locating the other court documents.

http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/faq.h...

If you know the city where the papers were filed than you can contact that area. If you do not, the first number on the naturalization number you have "may" be your clue as to location. Go to: http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/manif... scroll down to "District Key Number Tables". Once there you will see 3 date groupings. Click on the one for the time span that you believe your relative would have applied for citizenship. Look for that first number and see the area that it would have covered during those years. If you don't know the location, check all 3 groupings and you can at least narrow down the possible areas.

I think it is better to contact the local jurisdiction rather than to work through the National Archives.

Good luck...