Naturalization index 1834-1903

• Record series in the index: NRS 1042. This is an index to NRS 1040 and NRS 1041
• Entries in the index: 5,000+
• Copy service available

Naturalization records are a good source of information for tracing details of an immigrant ancestor's arrival and native place.

Why people were naturalized

Non British subjects who wished to vote or own land needed to be naturalized.

Conditions for naturalization

One of the conditions of naturalization was a five year period of residency in New South Wales.

Who was naturalized

Most of the records relate to people, mainly men, from European countries as well as from countries such as China and those in the Americas.

Who was not naturalized

People from countries that were part of the British Empire, such as Canada and Ireland did not need to be naturalized to vote or own property.

Few women are documented in the naturalization records.

The records can be viewed in the reading room on microfilm reels.

Letter numbers from the Colonial Secretary's Correspondence

The index notes a number of letter numbers recorded on the original index. These relate to the Colonial Secretary's correspondence and generally concern the reissuing of certificates due to loss where a certificate was required for travel, business or to apply for the old age pension. Occasionally the original application for naturalization may be included. Where the letter has been located we have added the item number, for example Letter no 97/19399 in [5/6407].

Please note - Applications for naturalization up to 1903 are not available to order unless a letter number and an item number is known. You may undertake research to find the numbers in our reading room.

Impounded

Impounded appears as an annotation beside a number of entries in the original index. Where letters have survived the term impounded appears to indicate that the certificate was impounded by customs or that a duplicate certificate was withheld and not reissued in cases such as where the person in possession of the certificate or applying for a duplicate was suspected of not being the person to whom the certificate was originally issued.