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

SIGNATURES and HANDWRITING–What they tell us

  

WHO DOESN’T RECOGNIZE THIS SIGNATURE? 

In fact, John Hancock’s signature was so famous that we still use it as an acronym for signing our name.  “Please put your John Hancock here.” 

As genealogists we process, review, copy, scan, download and analyze many documents.  These can date back to several centuries ago, or be as current as last year.  

What can signatures mean to us as researchers?

• It certainly personalizes your connection with that particular ancestor.  You are looking at a document that was probably handled by your ancestor. 
• It can tell you if your ancestor was actually able to sign his or her name, or did they have to leave a mark?
• It can be an indicator whether you ancestor was left handed.  Left handed people often times write back handed.  However, this is not a “set in stone” rule.  There are right handed people who will also write and sign in a back handed slant.
• If you have more than one sample of the signature, depending on how many years apart they are, you might be able to tell if the ancestor has a shaky hand or has perhaps become ill.   Has the signature changed?  If so, how?  Did the ancestor sign his or her name before and now can only leave a mark?  Or just the opposite.  Did they leave a mark in an earlier document and later signed their name?

We certainly aren’t (at least most of us), hand writing experts.  Nor, will we become experts by examining our ancestors signatures. 

It is possible, however, to do a brief study on handwriting and perhaps learn a little more about our ancestor.  The study of handwriting is call Graphology.

I did a search in Google “the study of signatures.”  Here are some sites that came up that may help us learn a little more.  These are certainly not all-inclusive, but can still give us some good information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphology
http://atozhandwriting.com/signature-analysis/
http://www.ehow.com/how_2302506_study-signature-using-graphology.html

Maybe you are fortunate enough to have a larger exemplar of your ancestor’s handwriting.  Perhaps letters, land documents or hand-written wills.  These items are certainly treasures.  But, the truth is that for most of us, we are lucky if we have a signature.

WHERE DO WE FIND SIGNATURES?
Here are a few ideas

Marriage records
Land records
Birth records
Baptism & Christening records
Probate records
Draft registration records
Social security application (SS-5) records
Social security cards
Affidavits of various sorts
Driver’s licenses
Cemetery or funeral home records

There are more places to find signatures and I’m sure you can add to this list. 

Now, what do we do when we do find one a signature?

Once the document has been scanned or saved to your computer, you can use your favorite photo editing software to crop and capture the signature.  I use Microsoft Office 2010 Photo Editor, for it’s ease of use.  But any editor will work.  Here is an article I posted not long ago about using Microsoft Office Photo Editor for EASY DOCUMENT EDITING.

Now, go and look at all those documents you have and find those signatures. 
I have posted a few of my family’s signatures in a “signature” tab at the top of this blog.

Thanks for stopping by today.
Happy hunting,