From McHenry County:
Circuit Clerk’s Office Launches Portal to Access Historical Naturalization Records
WOODSTOCK, Ill. – McHenry County Circuit Clerk Katherine Keefe has announced the launch of a new online portal that significantly improves public access to historical naturalization records.
This searchable website offers genealogists, historians, and family history buffs an efficient, centralized way to locate and view citizenship documents processed through the McHenry County courts from approximately 1851 to 1955.
This initiative preserves the rich history of the immigrant experience and makes vital public records easily accessible.
Before 1906, any level court could grant U.S. citizenship.
After federal reforms in 1906, the number of naturalizations handled in the McHenry County courts declined, ending entirely in 1955 when the responsibility shifted fully to federal courts.
The naturalization records include Declarations of Intention (“First Papers”), or the initial documents filed by those seeking citizenship.
These often contain interesting details such as foreign residence, occupation, arrival ship and date, physical descriptions, and signatures. Petitions for Naturalization (“Second Papers”) include proof of residency, witness statements, and often information about spouses and children.
The Certificate of Citizenship/Naturalization was the final grant of citizenship.
Together, these historic documents are important resources for anyone conducting genealogical research.
Recent changes to the Illinois Supreme Court’s Remote Access Policy now allow Circuit Clerks to publish historic naturalization records online.
“Identifying an ancestor’s county of origin and tracing their journey to McHenry County can be an exciting moment for many family history researchers,” Keefe said.
“While these records are not always easy to search, the new site’s strong search capabilities should be very helpful to the public.”
The Circuit Clerk’s Office partnered with ArcaSearch, a Minnesota-based company specializing in digitizing historic documents stored in bound volumes.
“ArcaSearch is proud to partner with the McHenry County Circuit Clerk’s office to make naturalization and other valuable records easily accessible and transparent to the public,” ArcaSearch Document Preservation Consultant Steve Fiers said.
“Our advanced AI-powered handwriting recognition transforms century-old, handwritten documents into fully searchable digital records.”
“During testing, the search system’s ability to recognize handwriting, even the elaborate cursive used in the 1800’s, has been impressive,” Keefe said.
“We have been able to locate older records we may never have found prior to this project.”
The project was funded using Court Document Storage fees.
The original McHenry County naturalization records are now housed at Northern Illinois University as part of the Local Government Records Regional Archives Depository system, which is maintained by the Illinois State Archives.
The Illinois State Archives has a larger database of naturalization records from across the state and offers free research assistance through the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.
To view McHenry County’s naturalization records online, go to the Circuit Clerk’s website here.
