New York City, Selected Naturalization Records, 1816-1845

This database contains the following naturalization records:

• Alphabetical collection of Declarations of Intent or Affidavits of Intention filed at the Court of Common Pleas for the city and county of New York, or with the New York Superior Court, 1829-1845


• Reports of Aliens made to the Clerk of the Court, 1816-1828

This collection contains records of individuals with Jewish sounding names, as determined by a committee from the American Jewish Historical Society; therefore, it is not a complete compilation of naturalization records from New York for this time period.

A large majority of the individuals found in these records came from England, Germany, and central European countries.

When completing a Declarations of Intent, the applicant declares his intention to become a citizen of the U.S. and renounces any allegiance to his former country, and names that country. This piece of information is helpful in identifying where that particular person came from, and helps in finding the birthplace or former place of residence.

In the Reports of Aliens, the individual’s name, gender, birthplace, age, country of allegiance, occupation, place where migrated from, and place of intended settlement are listed.

Ancestry.com has reproduced these records courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) where this collection is available on microfilm. The originals are located at the New York City Hall of Records.