Maryland Naturalization
This entry was originally written by Roger D. Joslyn, CG, FUGA, FGBS, FASG for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Naturalizations granted in U.S. district and circuit courts in Maryland (Baltimore) are available on microfilm at the National Archives'Mid-Atlantic Region in Philadelphia, with an index for the years 1797 to 1951. Some early naturalization petitions were destroyed by fire. The index is also available at the Baltimore City Archives and Maryland Historical Society. The Maryland State Archives has index/abstract cards for these courts (1797'1906), as well as indexes for 1925 to 1951 and for the naturalization of soldiers (1918'23). Other naturalization records are available at the Maryland State Archives and in the county courthouses. Citizenship was granted in the provincial period (1634'1776) by the court, legislature, or the governor and council, and these records are indexed at the Maryland State Archives. See also Jeffrey A. and Florence Leone Wyand, Colonial Maryland Naturalizations (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1975) for records of naturalizations (1660'1775). Additional naturalizations from 1733 from Maryland Commission Book 82 were abstracted and published in Maryland Historical Magazine, vols. 26 and 27 (1931'32). Robert Andrew Oszakiewski compiled two volumes of Maryland Naturalization Abstracts, covering Baltimore County and City (1784'1851), the County Court of Maryland (1779'1851), and the U.S. Circuit Court for Maryland (1790'1851) (Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1995'96). The Maryland State Archives also has an index to naturalizations (1781'1906), granted by the General Courts of the Eastern and Western Shores and in certain county courts. There are separate indexes for naturalizations in Baltimore City (1793'1933) and Baltimore County (1872'1902). Records for some counties have been published, such as those for Frederick County (1785'1850) and for Washington County prior to 1880.
