New York, U.S., Southern District Court, Korean War Military Naturalization Index, 1950-1955

Beginning with an act passed in 1862 aliens who served in the U.S. military and were honorably discharged were given special consideration for naturalization. This act (12 Stat. 597) stated that any alien, twenty-one years of age and older, who enlisted in the U.S. military would be "admitted to become a citizen of the United States, upon his petition, without any previous declaration of intention to become such; and he shall not be required to prove more than one year's residence." Subsequent acts granting the same privilege slightly modified the naturalization process for some enlisted aliens. For example, in 1918 as a result of World War I an act (40 Stat. 542) stating that any alien serving in the U.S. military or naval service in the war in which the country was currently engaged could file for naturalization without making a declaration of intention or having proof of five years residence in the United States. These acts were designed to encourage alien enlistment in the military and did not grant automatic citizenship, but merely accelerated the naturalization process for the qualifying individuals.

This database is an index to the naturalization records for the individuals from the New York Southern District who served in the Korean War. These records date approximately from 1950-1955, but may also extend to more recent years. The index provides the full name of the individual, their address, and their birth date. Viewing the images corresponding to the index will provide additional information including the date and place the naturalization certificate was issued, the petition number, and the alien registration number.

This index was obtained from NARA's Northeast Region, 201 Varick Street, New York, New York, 10014-4811. The index is available for consultation there, as are the papers that it indexes. Petitions for Naturalization can provide a great deal of both genealogical and biographical information and should be consulted. Information that may be found in this type of record includes birth date and place, occupation, residence, names of spouse and children, and emigration information. From the information available in this index it should be fairly easy to locate the actual petition for naturalization.

Some information was taken from: Chapter 1: The Naturalization Process in the United States: Historical Background, They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins by Loretto Dennis Szucs (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1998).