You never know what you may find in an old county filing
cabinet.A lot of documents pass through the Commissioners’ office
daily, but these old and yellowed naturalization index cards quickly caught my eye.
It turns out that this box was found a few weeks ago in a filing cabinet headed to a county surplus sale. Fortunately, someone from our Building
and Grounds department inspected the cabinet and found the records before it was sold.
These little cards contain information filed by Washington County residents who were seeking American citizenship during the early half of
the 1900s. These records were filed by people whose last names started with the
letters H-0 and each card provides a brief glimpse into their lives on the day
they were granted citizenship: name, address, age, and date. The index cards were part of an old filing system that
helped office workers locate an immigrant’s oath of allegiance and paperwork. We aren’t sure
where the cards are for the beginning and the end of the alphabet.
Documents like this are proof that everyone leaves behind a
paper trail and it’s up to us, the caretakers of these documents, to preserve
it.
As I thumbed through the cards, I was surprised to find two
that contained information on my aunts: Victoria Maggi of Denbo, who was
naturalized on June 24, 1940, and Melvian Lilian Maggi of Canonsburg, who
became a citizen on June 9, 1947. Both ladies were war brides who married into
my family.
It appears that if someone changed their name during the naturalization process, this information was included on the back of the card. For
example, Carolina Jutca of Meadowlands was 62 years old when she became a
citizen. On the back of the card, it states that “Name change by Decree of
Court from Carolina Dzatcak to Carolina Jutca as part of the Naturalization of
December 17, 1945.”
The records have since been turned over to the Prothonotary’s office and promptly sent off to be scanned. At this point it’s not certain how or when
they will be made available for public research.
My office is currently compiling a list of county records available for genealogical and historical research. Once this list is complete, I will post
it on this blog so that it may serve as a research guide for anyone interested
in the history of Washington County and the paper trail of its residents.
Larry Maggi
maggil@co.washington.pa.us
No comments:
Post a Comment