Deep Roots Family Tree Blog

Recent discovery

This discovery is as recent as it gets. I just checked my e-mail to find that my order from the Iron Range Research Center in Minnesota had been completed. A week or two ago, I requested a copy of a Declaration of Intent, which was the “first step toward naturalization for most persons seeking United States citizenship between 1795 and 1952.” Archives.gov

Wolfgang “Frank or “Franz” Preisinger, my 3rd great-grandfather, was born on the January 6th, 1830 in Bavaria. According to the Declaration of Intention above, he immigrated to America on April 25th, 1867 and became a citizen on September 5th of the same year.

This slightly conflicts with census reports, military documents and his biography on Find a Grave, that state that Wolfgang came to America with his parents in 1861 and enlisted in the Second Battery, Light Artillery, Minnesota Volunteers. It’s very possible that there was an error in recording or Frank couldn’t remember his exact arrival date. At the time, immigrants needed to wait for 2 years prior to applying, but the dates still don’t quite add up and the declaration above suggests that Frank had been in America for only a few months before applying.

How’s that for recent!