Now that I am retired all of my time is now 100% my time. (Well, some of it does belong to my wife, I suppose.) I need to find interesting ways to fill up all that time. Especially with the pandemic keeping us isolated at home.
I like doing research, which is why I took to genealogy and family history. I have more time for that now. I also recently realized that I like stories. I like reading them. I like making them up. I like writing them down. That is why I am returning to my family history blog. Here I can share the stories of my ancestors and distant relatives. I can also share the stories of how I discovered those family history stories. Some of these stories will be mysteries, both solved and unsolved. There are lots of unsolved ones unfortunately.
One of the unsolved mysteries has to do with my great-grandfather, William Frederick Ogden, and his citizenship status. He was born in Walkerton, Ontario in 1871. In about 1879, at the age of 8, his father moved the family to Hutchison County in the Dakota Territory A few years ago I came across his 1945 Petition for Naturalization in the Ancestry collection "California, Federal Naturalization Records, 1843-1999." He filed on 8 February 1945.
I had previously found his first papers in a SD Archives on-line index and then the digitized image on-line in Family Search. He filed his intention on 29 October 1892, shortly after turning 21. I was never ever to find his second papers. I was able to find JR Ogden, his father's first (26 June 1889) and second papers (6 April 1894) though.
What happened to William's second papers? I have a couple theories: they were not indexed or digitized; he thought he became a citizen when his father did. I think he filed for the papers in California in 1945 because he needed security clearance for a job in the war-time shipyards. That's just a guess.
What is interesting is that he appears not to have followed up on the application. At the bottom of the second page it states "Petition denied dis [sic] List No. List 1968 Oct 22-1945 Lack of presentation." It looks like he didn't show up to take the oath and become a citizen almost nine months later.
What else is interesting is that in the 1900 US Census his birthplace is Canada but there is no Naturalization info. In 1910 it says he arrived in 1879 and is Naturalized! In 1920 it says he came in 1884 and is Naturalized. In 1930 it says he arrived in 1879 and is Naturalized. In 1940 it also says he is Naturalized. If was naturalized, why did he need to file in 1945? If he wasn't naturalized, why did he keep saying he was?
So many possibilities; so many questions! Maybe he couldn't prove he was naturalized in 1945, filed the application and then found the proof. If he found the proof, where is it and why can't I find it? Maybe something happened with the job and he didn't need to go through with becoming a citizen and had been lying all those years.
So much more research to do. Is he listed on any voting records over the years? Where else might he have filed before or after the 1945 filing? It's a real head-scratcher.
