Daily AncestorCertificate of naturalization
A certificate of naturalization was the document a court gave a new citizen as proof that the petition for citizenship had been granted.
Before September 27, 1906, each court printed its own certificate and only that court kept a record. From that date certificates were standard and numbered, and a duplicate went to the federal Naturalization Service, now held by USCIS in its C-Files.
The original stayed with the family, so it often turns up among papers at home. Certificates issued after July 1, 1929 carry a photograph. Even after the Cable Act of 1922, certificates kept a line for the name of the new citizen's spouse until at least 1929, a leftover from the years when a wife took her husband's status.
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Daily Ancestor. "Certificate of naturalization." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/immigration/certificate-of-naturalization. Last checked 2026-10-03.