52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 17: Document

It's Week 17 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. The prompt for this week is ‘Document'. I decided to blog about a document that I found with my grandmother’s important papers—a petition for naturalization filled out by her youngest brother.

One thing that my family and I find interesting about this petition is the explanation for the name change. The little brother was born ‘Adam’ but used the name Albert or Al once he settled in the U.S. His explanation?
“Adam does not appeal to my sense of hearing.”

I don’t know if Albert ever filed this petition, or if he ever naturalized. This petition is not complete. I found a copy of his Declaration of Intention. It was completed and stamped in the Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago. The date is January 23, 1925. Albert would have been about 19 years old at the time.

Even though the petition is not complete, it does contain some valuable information. Once section lists places and dates of residence in the U.S. since his arrival.

The last residence listed is Richmond, Illinois from Jan 1926 to ‘present’. This tells me that Albert filled out the petition sometime after Jan 1926. He apparently intended to file the petition in the Circuit Court of Woodstock in McHenry County, Illinois. Now I have some hints to guide me in my search for Albert’s naturalization.

Albert died of tuberculosis on April 3, 1936 at a sanatorium in Ottawa, Illinois.