Old legal and record term 1790s-1950s
What does declaration of intention mean in naturalization records?
A declaration of intention was an immigrant's sworn first step toward United States citizenship, renouncing the old allegiance, called the first papers. Declarations often predate the final papers by five years or more and can carry arrival details, birthplace, and even ship names the census lacks. You will meet it in naturalization and court records, mostly 1790s-1950s.
Where it appears: naturalization, court records.
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Related terms
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
Where will I see declaration of intention in the records?+
Mostly in naturalization and court records, 1790s-1950s. Clerks abbreviated freely and spelling wandered, so expect variant wordings around it.
Do these old terms still matter for family history?+
Yes, a single word can settle a relationship. Relict names a widow, et ux hides an unnamed wife, natural son points at a parent. The words are dry, but what they encode about a family is not.
Where do these definitions come from?+
They are drawn from period dictionaries, government archive glossaries, and standard genealogy references, cross-checked against each other; provenance is documented with the dataset. Inside AncestorIQ, Deep Research reads the record itself and explains terms like this in context, against your ancestor's own document.
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