Surname Saturday ~ Josef Handler's Naturalization papers

While searching for naturalization records for my husband's immigrant ancestors, I found the entire file for his grandfather Josef/Joseph Handler at Fold3 (formerly Footnote) as one long PDF. The source file is titled: Naturalization Petition and Record Books for the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, Cleveland, 1907-1946. For this post, I have separated it into the different documents that illustrate the steps that Josef had to take between 1910 and 1920 to become a U.S. citizen.

The Certificate of Arrival confirms that Josef Handler arrived at New York, New York on April 14, 1910 on the ship Oceanic. See my post about the Handler immigration for details.

Next came the May 27, 1914, Declaration of Intention, which has information that doesn't quite agree with the information found on the passenger list.

This document indicates his age as 29, his occupation as shipping clerk and that he was 6 feet tall and weighed 186 lbs. He had a ruddy complexion, black hair, brown eyes, and a scar on his chin. He was born in Illok, Hungary (confirming what was so difficult to read on his passenger list) on August 21, 1894, and lived in Cleveland, Ohio.

Finally, the Petition for Naturalization, which indicates that Josef Handler (and family) officially became U.S. citizens on June 22, 1920.

Between the date of the petition (February 13, 1919) and the date of the oath of allegiance (June 22, 1920), Josef and Lena had another son, Alfred. Three of the Handler boys served in World War II.

I'm hoping to find these types of records for all of my husband's family's immigrant ancestors.

Surname Saturday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers, the genealogy community’s resource for blogging. It is used by many genealogy bloggers to help them tell stories of their ancestors.