|
Index to 2100 Naturalizations at Rutland County, Vermont (1836-1906) Sara Noonan, Researcher Linked to this page is a converted spreadsheet of approximately 2100 indexed Rutland County naturalizations - mostly Irish but including some Welsh, Scottish, English, French, German, and Canadian immigrants, as well. Please read Sara's message below, including her offer to email ACTUAL DOCUMENT IMAGES, and then Click here for the E thru K Index Click here for the L thru O Index Click here for the P thru Z Index "Rutland County Vermont Naturalization Records" This is an index of about 2100 Naturalization records from 1836 to 1906, which include some very valuable and detailed information at times. Other times it’s a ‘bare’ index record with minimal information. A majority of these records are from Irish immigrants. As we’ve learned, many Irish records were destroyed and making connections in the homeland can be near impossible. These Naturalization records are AWESOME because of that great loss of information. The index contains a small amount of information such as name, origin, and birth date. Information that can be found in the whole document includes: Names, birth dates, birth places, where they filed, where they lived at the time, when they arrived in the USA, Military service, Witnesses (could be a connection), and an occasional note. As you look through the index and see someone who may be your connection, I invite you to contact me regarding any of the folks listed here. I’ll be happy to send you an image of the document for you to decipher for yourself. See my note below regarding making requests. The new Americans were from many counties and out of state locations from where original application took place, all finalized in Rutland County, Vermont. They had to meet qualifications in order to naturalize, such as of length of time in the country, time between application and finalization, military service was a fast qualifier, arrival before the age of 21, and so on. Almost every New American in these documents was a man of at least 21 years of age. Most times when the man of the house became naturalized, his whole family in his household was considered naturalized by the rights of the father now being an American. This must have been an exciting event for the family. You should read a couple of these whole documents to see how the stately verbage could be so emotional and official. As you know deciphering old handwriting can be very difficult. There are many names of people and places that are very likely to be misspelled. Many of the new Americans were not able to read or write or both, so the clerk doing the writing must have spelled things like they sounded, just like in the census. I attempted to compare the questionable names with some map references of Ireland on GoIreland.com to see if anything matched or was close. Some were safer left the way they looked in the documents. Some of the birth years are not exact either, so use them as a guide. Try to also look at the shape (length, ascensions and descensions of letter shapes, or sound of the name, and compare the same letters on the same page). I did at times have to compare these writings to what records were available in the census's in the area and time frame of the document. It is also a good idea to look at other folks who came from the same area with different last names. I started this 2 years ago and put it down…. Then forgot about it…. Woops! So, in the beginning I put much more information in the index, and when I took it up again, I just wanted to hurry and at least get the most important information indexed. I finished today – the 4th of July – how cool! Some of these are already posted on the message boards, and now there are about 1400 additions. Requesting document images or further information: Please make sure you read this whole note before sending a request. I will need your email address and will send 1 document per request if you are using dial up. I will only send multiple documents at one time if you have a high speed connection and you let me know what your mailbox limit is. Some of these files are very large. Give me enough information from the index – preferably including an image number to get the right document to you. I’m not going to send you a bunch of junkmail – I don’t do that. Please post your request as a reply to Rutland County Vermont Naturalization Records on the Rutland County Vermont Message Board (and remember to include an email address). By accepting any copies I send you, you must agree that you will help someone else for FREE too such as copying extra records when there is valuable information that’s not easily accessible to folks, and making it available on message boards or the GenWeb sites. I did this in hopes of trying to find my family, and the ones I was really looking for are not in these records (DARN!). This was done on my own and not by suggestion for gain other than the satisfaction of being able to put a smile on someone’s face because I was able to help them. I just hope someday, someone in the Rutland area might have information or access to a resource to find something for me. Have a GREAT day! Sara Noonan Volunteer to index! www.familysearchindexing.org |
