Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone,
i just wonder if there is anyone who would know what information might be obtained from naturalisation records ?

I have an ancestor Joseph Solomon born in Poland but lived in the uk. On the National Archives there are some naturalisation records dated 1864 with a Joseph Solomon on , I have no idea if this is my ancestor or not and before I consider paying for the record I just wondered if anyone knew how much information was given on these sort of records.
Thank you
Kath

My only experience with naturalisation records so far was excellent albeit a little surprising. I was actually hoping to find the record of my wife's great grandfather who was born in Germany but lived in England for over 40 years. He married an English girl and appeared on census records as, "Born Germany, British citizen". He had quite an unusual surname and had married an English woman in 1875.

What I actually found was the naturalisation record of his widow, who by marrying a German had automatically become a German citizen even though she was born in England to British parents and, as far as I can ascertain had never visited Germany. Her husband died in 1904 and presumably as a result of the outbreak of WW1 and the consequent ill feeling towards Germans she applied to the Home Office to be naturalised as a British citizen.

The records themselves were marvellous. They contained her initial application, subsequent correspondence between her and the Home Office, character references from the police, a church minister, plus her two nominated referees. Her acceptance as a British citizen and a copy of her certificate of naturalisation. 18 pages In total and well worth the effort of obtaining the record.

I have never found a record of her husband being naturalised as a British citizen so I am assuming that when the enumerator asked the question, "Where were you born?" he answered truthfully and the enumerator simply assumed that he had been naturalised. According to someone at the National Archive, that was quite a common occurrence.

You would normally get place of birth, date of birth, parents names and parents nationality. Also their various addresses, with dates, of where they lived since arriving in this country, and details of any children. There would also be references as to their character, provided by upstanding citizens!

Thank you so much.
I did not want to spend money on a record that may not be the person I am looking for but as you may obtain quite a lot of useful information I think it will be worth the risk.
I will now await NA's reply as to how much they will charge for the record.
I will let the board know the outcome
thanks again
kath