Naturalization records have been filed in the U.S. district and circuit courts and in local courts in North Carolina counties. Each court had its own style of record keeping before 1906.

Various types of records were created during the naturalization process, including declarations of intention, petitions for naturalization, oaths of allegiance, and certificates of naturalization and citizenship. Each record can give details about a person, such as age, residence, country or city of origin, ethnic background, the date and port of arrival, the name of the ship, names of spouse and children with their birth dates and places, or current address.

Records for earlier years usually contain less information than those after 1906, when the federal court system for naturalization was revised and details such as birth date and place, physical description, and marital status may be given. See the United States Research Outline (30972) for a more complete discussion of the naturalization process and the records created.

For a comprehensive list of North Carolina naturalization records, see:

Schaefer, Christina K. Guide to Naturalization Records of the United States. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing, 1997. (FHL book 973 P4s; computer number 798891.) Pages 249–252 in this book cover North Carolina. For each county, the book lists the courts where naturalizations took place, the years the records cover, where the original records are housed, and the first film numbers of the Family History Library, where applicable. The introduction discusses the naturalization process, the types of records created, and the usual genealogical content of each record.

Pre-1906 Naturalization Records

Federal Records. The U.S. district and circuit court records for North Carolina naturalizations are at the National Archives center at East Point, Georgia. The earliest U.S. district court records begin in 1801 for Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County. Most of these records have not been microfilmed. Only the following U.S. district court records are available on microfilm through the Family History Library:

Wilson, Wilson County, 1926, 1929–1945
Raleigh, Wake County, 1909–1933