They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins

If you are an American, chances are that at some point you have immigrant ancestors. And if you have immigrant ancestors, chances are good that their coming to America created some kind of documentation, whether they were formally naturalized or not. They Became Americans explores these immigration records in a detailed but easy-to-use way.

Author Loretto Dennis Szucs provides an accurate, readable, and interesting historical framework for the citizenship process. They Became Americans suggests ways of finding naturalization records and discusses the weaknesses and strengths of the different types of records. If naturalization records are not to be found, it points to a variety of alternative sources for finding immigrant origins.