Seeking Naturalization of French grandmother

Dear Ms. Craig,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We suggest that you submit an index search request to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Genealogy Program for records of your grandmother.  if she did not complete the United States naturalization process, USCIS should be able to provide the certification on non-existence (see FAQ section), and although your grandmother won’t have a naturalization record, it is likely that INS did create an A-File that the French consulate would require as part of the dual citizenship process.

Please note that USCIS Genealogy does NOT provide certification of files in their holdings, therefore you will need to keep all correspondence (including envelopes) in relation to their request.

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your family research!

If you'd like to give us some information about her - her name, the names of her husband and children, where specifically in Florida she lived, etc. - we would be glad to take a look for you. Oftentimes, the free genealogical records can give you all the information you need. Thanks!

It looks like you can order a certified marriage certificate from the New York City Municipal Archives. This is their site. (Ancestry shows that New York issued them a marriage license on 9 Nov 1914, just in advance of their wedding.) If you also need Grenville's birth certificate (to prove that he was a native-born US citizen), you can acquire it from the city of Providence, RI, at this link. (You can also see this record in FamilySearch, but of course it isn't certified.) It's probably a good idea to contact the French embassy/consulate before you start shelling out money: this is a slightly unusual case because there's no formal naturalization certificate. Clarifying their expectations now might save you a lot of hassle later.

With respect to passports, Grenville applied for at least three of them. The applications can be found on his FamilySearch page. (One of them even includes a picture.) I haven't found any passport applications for his wife and children. This isn't terribly surprising since passports weren't mandatory at this time: they were useful only for identifying oneself in the foreign country. As such, it was probably only necessary for the head of the house to have one.

Don't hesitate to let us know if we may be of further assistance. Best of luck as you work through this process!

You have been given some very good information to locate needed documents. Working in an archives I have had several patrons request documents to obtain dual citizenship. Because you are suppling them to a foreign government, there is one subject I have not seen mentioned in this thread. You may want to ask if the French Government requires an apostille along with the certified documents. This is the international equivalent of substantiating legitimacy of the document.  Most Secretary of States or State Vital Records offices can provide the/an apostille service for an extra fee. You do not want to show up at your appointment for dual citizenship without all the required documents.

Sincerely,

Jewell Dunn