Friday, February 7, 2020

FRIDAY FINDS ~ At last! A naturalization record for someone in my tree–Bertha Klinoweit Redcap (1898–1934)

The index card for Bertha Redcap's naturalization record

Funny how things work sometimes.  I had lunch with a friend just last Sunday.  As we were talking, I, of course, was talking about my family tree and genealogy etc.  This friend isn’t a genealogist, but she was kind enough to listen to me.  I didn’t go on too long.  LOL!

One thing I mentioned was that in all my 17+ years of researching, I had yet to find a naturalization record for any of my ancestors. 
Given that 4 of my 8 great grandparents came here mid to late 1800’s, from Scotland and England, you’d think I would have found one already.  They did state in the 1900 census that they were naturalized.  And all of them were living in Detroit, Michigan. 

I might not have located any of their records….yet, but I have located one.  Not a blood relative, but it is a record from Detroit, so I’m happy to know they exist.

The record I have located is for my paternal granduncle’s wife’s brother’s wife.  Yes, that’s stretching it a bit.  My granduncle Roy Gould married a lady named Emma Redcap and this naturalization record is associated with that family.

Certificate of Arrival for Bertha Klinoweit, 3 Apr 1913

Bertha Klinoweit arrived in the U.S. on 3 Apr 1913, according to her Certificate of Arrival for Naturalization Purposes.  She would have been a young girl of 14 years old at the time.  This first page of the paperwork states that she arrived on the President Grant.  I’ll be looking for a passenger list with her name and will share it with you in a later post.

HERE’S THE NEXT PAGE OF THE NATURALIZATION RECORD

YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

On this form we learn that she calls herself Mrs. Bertha REDCAP.  This gives her address in Detroit, her occupation and her date of birth – 22 Jul 1898.  Best of all it gives her location of birth in Germany as Sanseitschen.  This verifies her arrival in New York on 3 Apr 1913 on the U.S.S. President Grant.  This page also lists her husband, Charles, his date of birth and place and the date of their marriage as 15 Aug 1926.  Doesn't get much better than that for genealogical information.

Bertha signed the page on 10 Nov 1927 and one of the witnesses was my granduncle’s wife, Emma GOULD.  Emma also signed the form and now I have both of their signatures (click here to see the  other family signatures I've collected)


HERE IS THE LAST PAGE OF BERTHA’S NATURALIZATION PAPERS


On this page we see that Bertha declared an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and denounced the German Reich. She signed this page as well.

The court date is given as 13 Feb 1928 and her Certificate of Naturalization No. is 2728882.

I expect that Bertha was quite proud on the day she took her oath and became a U.S. citizen.

Bertha & Charles had two sons, Edward Charles, born in 1929 and Richard Robert, born 1931.

Sadly, Bertha died at the young age of 36 years, on 24 Nov 1934.  She never got to see her little boys grow up.  The cause of death was listed as Edema of brain – pulmonary thrombosis/fatty pancreas and liver.

Have you located naturalization records for any of your ancestors?  If so, I’d love to hear about them.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

6 comments:

  1. Yea, glad you finally found one! I wish mine would state more then a Country they came from.

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    1. Thanks Deb. Even though this one was from a non direct line (way non direct), I felt good finding it and wanted to write about it. Since it was from Detroit, I’m hopeful that someday I will find some from my great grandparents.

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  2. Congrats on finding this record! They are such treasures of family history information.

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    1. Thanks Jana. I think all of us want to locate at least one of each type of record. Especially important ones such as naturalization records.

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  3. It's exciting to finally find a naturalization record and even better that it was typewritten! So much good information there. I was confused when I read this: "This page also lists her husband, Charles, his date of birth and place and the date of their marriage as 15 Aug 1826." I think you must mean that they married in 1926, not 1826. And how sad she died at such a young age.

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    1. Nancy - Thank you so much for catching my error. I've made the correction to 1926. I am hopeful that I will find more naturalization records. This is a hobby/passion that is certainly never boring.
      Thanks for stoppin by.

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I look forward to reading your comments. If you have any connection to the people mentioned in this blog, please let me know. I write about mine and my husband's ancestors and would welcome new information or meeting a new cousin or two. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.