A Serendipity Celebration for Joseph Jerkens

I am excited to share this wonderful serendipity celebration for Joseph Jerkens and for his family, his descendents and nieces and nephews. It was not easy to find Josef Jurkiewicz's Application for the USA Declaration of Intention, but through several helpful people and organizations, I located it. The copy and information were all on the Internet. That is not always the case. Genealogists cannot expect everything to be on the Internet, but this time what I needed was.

I have written two other blog posts about Joseph Jerkens and the unknowns about his early life on July 8, 2011, Joseph Marion Jerkens (1883-1952) Followup, and July 9, 2011, Joseph Marion Jerkens (Josef Marion Jurkiewicz).

I finally "struck gold" with the New York Italian Genealogy Group at http://www.italiangen.org/EDN.stm which indexed the New York Eastern District Court of NY Naturalization Project. This database contains an index to the naturalization records that were issued between 1865 and 1956 by the Eastern District Courts, which includes Kings (Brooklyn), Queens, Richmond (Staten Island), Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

I used the  printable form to request Naturalization Records from the National Archives (NARA) in NY. This is a copy of the email I received from Sharon A. Pullen, C.A., Archivist, Office of the County Clerk, Historic Documents Library, 310 Center Drive, Riverhead, NY 11901-3392. She was most helpful to lead me in the right direction.

From:	Pullen, Sharon (SharonPullen@suffolkcountyny.gov)
Sent:	Wed 3/02/11 7:07 PM

Dear Ms. Robbins,

The document that you requested is from the Eastern District court, not the Suffolk County Supreme Court. In order to obtain a copy of that document you must use the form that requests records from NARA. It can be found at: http://www.italiangen.org/NaturalizationRequestFormItalianGenSite.pdf

Sincerely,

Sharon A. Pullen, C.A., Archivist
Office of the County Clerk, Historic Documents Library
310 Center Drive, Riverhead, NY 11901-3392
Email: SharonPullen@suffolkcountyny.gov
Phone: (631) 852-2000 extn. 700
Fax: (631) 852-2004

On November 13, 1926 Jozeph Jurkiewicz, age 43, applied for the USA Declaration of Intention, in the Village of Patchogue, Suffolk County, NY; occupation private groom, resided Islip, Suffolk County, NY, white, dark complexion, 5'10", 168 lbs., brown hair, grey eyes, scar on chin, birthplace Zadarow, Austria; came from Bremen, Germany on Crown Princess Cecile. Joseph Jurkiewicz's last residence was given as Tarnobrzeg. His birthplace was Buczacz which is the same district as the village of Zadarow but about 400 miles NE of modern Vienna, Austria. Joseph Jurkiewicz arrived at the port of NY in the state of NY about 21 Sep 1908. He was not an anarchist or a polygamist. He intended to become a citizen of the USA & permanently reside therein. Superior Court, Suffolk County, NY, Fred S. Pulver, Clerk The form states that it is invalid for all purposes seven years after the date hereof. Record #651879. Joseph became a naturalized citizen on November 9, 1929.

If you check the date of the email I received from Sharon A. Pullen, that was back in March, nine months ago, when I was struggling with technology, at least with the free Adobe Reader. I uninstalled it and use the free Nitro Reader which gives me many more choices, as changing a .pdf document to a Picasa photograph which gives me the opportunity to insert genealogy documents into .jpg so I can use them in my blog. The sizing of the pages in the document are not perfect here. There are more readable for anyone who wishes to order their own downloaded .pdf copy.

Notice on page 2 that Josef's last name is spelled Yorkiewicz. That is only one of several misspellings of his Jurkiewicz and Jerkens surname in all of the documents I have found. Here follows Josef Jurkiewicz's application for the USA Declaration of Intention: