U.S. naturalization history examined through new research and genealogy

New research and genealogical findings are highlighting the complex and often contradictory history of naturalization in the United States.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Siobhan Somerville has authored “Naturalization: A Queer Genealogy of U. S. Citizenship, Race, and Sexuality.” The book examines how naturalization has historically been used to sustain contradictions between liberal ideals of freedom and practices such as settler colonialism, imperialism, and slavery. Somerville notes that citizenship was explicitly racialized for much of U.S. history, pointing out that the first federal naturalization law in 1790 restricted eligibility to “free white persons,” a requirement that remained in law until 1952.

In a related look at individual immigrant histories, genealogical records have surfaced regarding William Henry Kelsey. Born in England in 1830, Kelsey’s naturalization was recently identified in a Utah County minute book, providing insight into the movement of Latter-day Saint converts and the survival of territorial naturalization records.