Delaware naturalizations now available online

Family history researchers can now use their Delaware library card at home to find Delaware naturalizations from 1796 to 1850 online. Naturalization documents are those that were completed when someone entered the United States of America for the first time and had to register as newly arrived in the country. This is the first time the complete collection of Delaware naturalizations for this time period has been available on the internet.

The records are located on the Delaware page on Ancestry.com, and Delawareans can have free access.  Among the items one may find in a naturalization document are the name of the individual, country of origin, date of naturalization, current residence, occupation, birth date, date and place of arrival and children’s names. Delaware State Archivist Steve Marz said, "The addition of these naturalizations greatly enhances the genealogical resources that the Delaware Public Archives has already made available online. We will continue to add materials to the web that can help genealogists and historians carry out their research.”

This new set of records joins the Delaware early vital statistics already on the Ancestry site: births through 1908 and Delaware marriages and deaths through 1933. These new online genealogical materials are a result of collaboration among the Delaware Public Archives, Delaware Division of Libraries, and Ancestry.com. All of these original records, in the possession of the Delaware Public Archives, have been digitized and alphabetized for easy access online.

To find this information online, a researcher will need to log in to the Delaware Library Catalog by using his or her Delaware library card at www.lib.de.us and clicking on Delaware Genealogy Online at the top of the menu. At that point, one can search the Delaware page of Ancestry.com. If a researcher wants to look at the original record, he or she will be asked to submit first and last name and an email address in order to receive a password for a free trial subscription to Ancestry.com. Although it is designated as a trial subscription, it will in fact never expire. The researcher will only have access to the records Ancestry has digitized for the Delaware Public Archives.

For more information about the Delaware Public Archives, visit archives.delaware.gov.

The Delaware Public Archives is at 121 Duke of York St. in Dover. The Mabel Lloyd Ridgely Research Room is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, and from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month.

The Delaware Public Archives, an agency of the state of Delaware, is one of the oldest public archives programs in the United States.