New Kent County (Va.) Naturalization Records, 1848

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888
Restrictions:

New Kent County's loose naturalization records, 1848, are digitized and available through the Naturalization Records Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website. Please use digital images.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

New Kent County (Va.) Naturalization Records, 1848. Local government records collection, New Kent County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, 23219.

Summary

Extent:
.05 cu. ft. (1 box)
Creator:
New Kent County (Va.) Circuit Court
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

New Kent County (Va.) Naturalization Records, 1848. Local government records collection, New Kent County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, 23219.

Background

Scope and content:

New Kent County (Va.) Naturalization Records, 1848, consists of loose naturalization records filed in the local court. Loose naturalization records may include affidavits, reports for naturalization, declarations of intent to become United States citizens, and notices of application for admission of citizenship. The reports are narrative accounts made by applicants summarizing their journey to the United States. The declarations of intent record the person's name, place of birth, age, country of previous citizenship, renunciation of allegiance and fidelity to the nation of which the person is currently a citizen, and the date the intention was sworn. Affidavits, signed by those who knew the applicant and could vouch for their loyalty to the United States, may also be filed with the reports and declarations.

Biographical / historical:

Context for Record Type: Beginning in 1795, a person could declare their intent to become a citizen at any time and in any place after they arrived in the United States. Prior to the Naturalization Act of 1906, the naturalization process primarily occurred in local and state courts. Declarations of intent were the record by which an applicant for U.S. citizenship declared their intent to become a citizen and renounced their allegiance to a foreign government. This document typically preceded proof of residence or a petition to become a citizen by two or more years.

Locality History: New Kent County may have been named either for the English county of Kent or for Kent Island, in the upper waters of the Chesapeake Bay. William Claiborne, a native of Kent who had been driven from Kent Island by Lord Baltimore, was a prominent resident of the New Kent area about 1654 when the county was formed from York County. Part of James City County was added in 1767. The county seat is New Kent.

Lost Locality Note: Created in 1654. Records were destroyed when John Posey set fire to the courthouse on July 15, 1787. Many records were lost when the courthouse was partially destroyed by fire during Civil War hostilities in 1862. Additional records were burned on April 3, 1865, in Richmond, where they had been moved for safekeeping during the Civil War.

Acquisition information:
These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from New Kent County.
Processing information:

Loose naturalization records, 1848, were processed and indexed for the purpose of inclusion in the Library of Virginia's Naturalization Records digital collection by Library of Virginia staff.

Encoded by G. Crawford: February 2019; updated by M. Long: October 2024.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into the following series:

  • Series I: Loose Naturalization Records, 1848, housed in a box with other New Kent County court records.

Housed in a box with other New Kent County court records.

Physical location:
Library of Virginia