These records are from Santa Barbara County Superior Court and date from 1852 forward. They contain the Petition for Naturalization and oath, Certificate of Arrival, Deposition of Witnesses, and Declaration of Intention. These original records will not be found anywhere else including the National Archives. These records are still in the process of being digitized and indexed by the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society. Naturalization Certificates are not included in the file but could be obtained from the US National Archives using the certificate number on the reverse side of the Petition near the oath.
Other Naturalization records include Repatriation Petition records. If a natural US-born female married an alien and lost her own citizenship in 1907, she had to petition the court to become a citizen. Congress mandated that “any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband.” Upon marriage, regardless of where the couple resided, the woman’s legal identity morphed into her husband’s. The act was repealed in 1922, but if a woman felt she had lost her citizenship, she would petition for repatriation if her husband was eligible for citizenship, they had divorced, or he had died.
Search the naturalization records in our database here.
Source Citation: Santa Barbara County Superior Court records, digitized and indexed by the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society.
