A Citizen Now or in the Future

The next section on the census, starting in 1900, asks questions about citizenship.  Just to give you a heads up, we will take several posts to cover these questions, review a very brief history of citizenship in the U.S., and how you can use this information to find more answers.

Questions Asked and Hopefully Answered

Citizenship questions were asked in the 1900-1940 censuses.  Of course, asking where you were born has been on every census since 1850.  The 1950 census asks about your citizenship, but it only requires a yes or no answer.  The questions vary from census to census, but we can break them down into these categories:

• Parent’s birthplace-asked in the 1900-1930 censuses, also in the supplementary questions in 1940
• 1900-1940-The year the person immigrated to the United States.  In 1900 the form also asks how long the person has been in the United States, which is basically the same question.
• Citizenship-The answer to this was blank for a person born in the U.S., Na for a naturalized citizen, Pa for a person who had filed the Declaration of Intention, Al for foreign born people who had not begun the naturalization process.  In the Instructions to Enumerators, enumerators were to record this only for foreign born males over 21, not women or children.  For the 1940 census, this was the only question asked about citizenship and it is right after the column asking the place of birth.
• Native tongue-1910-1930 ask what a person’s native language was.

More Than Face Value

The real value to these questions is not the answers they give, although that can be pretty great, but where they can send you for more research.  Think of these answers as jumping off points to learn even more about your family.

Next time we will go over a brief history of immigration in the U.S. in order to get some context.  If this all seems overwhelming, we’ve got good news!  At Heroes of the Past, we’ve already been overwhelmed, recovered, and do immigration research on a regular basis.  Contact us if we can help you discover the Heroes in your past!