Whose Naturalization Is That Anyway?

     Yesterday I had to run an errand in a village located between my home and the village of Lyons.  Lyons being the place I have to go in order to view the state censuses for Wayne County, New York.  They aren't online although the original books still exist and have been filmed, transcribed and indexed.  Fortunately, I live in the same area my ancestors settled in, so I keep a running "to do" list of research questions as they arise, arranged by the repository that holds documents that could shed some light on the subject.  If I find myself in the neighborhood of one of those repositories I can just drop in.  Yesterday it was the Wayne County Historians office that was conveniently located near my destination.  I printed off a list of queries filed under WCH and hit the road.

     With the help of Jane, a lovely person who never tires of assisting researchers, or has the good grace not to show it, I made some great discoveries.  One was John Taylor Vincent in the 1855 NYS census of Butler, New York showing him born in "Seretoga" and living with his wife "Sharlott".  Another was the naturalization of my great-great-grandfather Philip Power from Cullen Castle, County Waterford.  Another find was the declaration of Mathew Ryan, a fourth great-uncle, that read he was from not just Ireland as usual, but Tipperary, Ireland!  I also found the 1868 naturalization of Cornelius Ryan.  There were only two men of that name in Palmyra, New York, my third great-grandfather and his son Cornelius Jr.  The document could belong to either one of them.

     The old naturalizations don't offer much information.  A name, residence and former residence, along with names of sponsors is about all they contain.  I knew from  the baptismal registers of Annacarty/Donohill Parish in South Tipperary that Cornelius Jr. was baptized in May of 1844 making him not quite old enough in 1868 to have applied for citizenship in 1863, five years being required to pass before those final citizenship papers could filed.  But in the 19th century people played pretty fast and loose with ages and names.  Both men arrived in the United States in 1860, and both lived in Palmyra.  This would take some digging.

     One of the first things I do when I find documents like these, is to take a look at the sponsors or witnesses to try to determine their relationship to the subject.  In this case it looked like C W Williamson and J F Swain were the sponsors.  After looking through censuses from that time frame and finding nothing, I thought perhaps I was misreading the name Swain, maybe it was Strain so I tired that.

  
     There in the 1880 census I found John Strain, son of Irish immigrants and a shoe dealer.  Cornelius Jr.'s occupation was shoemaker!  Another clue was that the naturalization was signed by Cornelius; his father could neither read nor write though he could conceivably have learned to sign his name in his 70 or so years.  The clincher was the 1870 census.  It showed that Cornelius Sr. was not a US citizen, but his son's entry indicated he was.  I feel confident saying the naturalization I found yesterday was indeed for Cornelius Jr.