The much awaited naturalization papers for Ulrich West were delivered by snail mail from Butler County, Pennsylvania yesterday. I ripped the envelope open just knowing that I would find wonderful things inside. There was the promised stack of papers, all clipped together. Sorting through them I found the petition, naturalization, copies of the folded exterior papers and even a copy of the dated registry.
Reading through the hand written pages can be a bit of a chore. Even the final naturalization paper was completely hand written and as readable on a copied paper. I found his name, written and written over, misspelled in places. There is his signature, even more illegible than the ones inserted by the clerk. I stared closely to see if I had the name spelled correctly, Ulrich not Ulrick like it appeared in other documents. West appeared to be spelled Wust in other places. I would presume this to be bad penmanship. From other searches my guess at this point would be that Ulrich is a family name, a last name, possibly from his mother’s side of the family.
Declared in the papers was his renouncement of allegiance to the king of Germany and Wirtumberg. Württemberg was spelled incorrectly on the document. It mentioned that Ulrich had arrived in the United States before he had turned 18, this piece of knowledge I knew from the Census records. About the only thing I gained from the document, aside from seeing his signature, was the exact date of is naturalization, September 9, 1844.
I had hoped to find out the name of the ship and possibly the names of his parents. With the ship name and date of arrival I would have had someplace to look for the names of his parents and more information on them.