James Beidler  responded on Facebook to my “Did the Trautvetter Brothers Ever Naturalize” post and I thought I’d address his comments in a follow-up post. For point of reference these three brothers were born in the 1830s-1840s and immigrated to Illinois with their parents in 1853.

It is possible that the Trautvetter brothers naturalized in a federal court. Before the US naturalization reform of 1906, any court of record could naturalize. There was not a federal court within easy distance of the Trautvetters while there were several nearby county courts (most likely ones being in Carthage, Illinois-the county seat of Hancock County where they lived or in Quincy, Illinois–the county seat of Adams County directly to the south). Other immigrants who have been researched in this same location and time period naturalized in the local county court. This was most likely because it was closer and obtaining a witness who would make the trip with them would have been easier.  The court would want to know that the witnesses were also citizens in their own right. That would be easier for a local court to do.

The other possibility, given when the Trautvetter brothers were born, is that they became naturalized via Civil War service. Michael and Theodore did not serve in the Civil War. George enlisted and served for the duration of the war, but was charged with desertion for returning home after the war had ended but before he had actually been discharged. That eliminated the possibility that they were naturalized via military service.

As mentioned in the original post, it is possible that the brothers thought their father was actually naturalized and that they had derivative citizenship through their father. They would not have been the first 19th century immigrants who were confused about their citizenship status.