Dumb Luck - Again

So....I was surfing the Internet Monday evening and somehow I ended up on the Washington State Digital Archives page.  My brain is still a little fuzzy on how I got there, but when I saw the search box I started plugging in my surname list as I routinely do when I find sites like this.  I didn't get very far because after I entered "Agazio," I got a hit...and this is what caused my brain to get a little fuzzy.

I clicked on the one result under naturalization records, and I saw the name Antonio Agazio.  Hmmm...this was my grandfather's name.  Now before I clicked again I thought this couldn't be him.  Why would there be a naturalization record for my grandfather in Washington with a date of 1901 when I already have the petition for naturalization (1925) and declaration of intention (1922) he obtained in Colorado?  There have been so many false positives in my hunt for how this man came to the United States, but there was his name staring at me...so I took a breath and clicked.

As my luck sometimes seems to go in these matters, it was him.  Here's the record page and the actual declaration of intention my grandfather signed in 1908.  The exciting part about this find is the new information this document gives me.  I learned that he traveled from Italy to France; then to Liverpool, England; then to Quebec, Canada on a ship named "Lake Michigan."  Up to this point, I had no idea he was in France, England, or the name of the ship he sailed on to Canada.  I need to study the document closer and I will write more about what I find later.  I wonder why he went through the declaration of intention process twice?

The weird part of all of this is I wasn't really looking for him...it just kind of happened.

Click here to subscribe to Genealogy Reviews Online

Comments

[Tim Agazio]

Teresa,

I went back and checked his WW1 draft registration card and it he says he is a citizen of Italy. I have the feeling he started the process in 1908 and for some reason never finished. I guess he started over in the 1920s when he acquired a permanent address...this is one of those frustrating parts about genealogy - there are so many unknows we will never know.

Thanks for visiting and for your comment!

Tim

[Teresa]

Tim

He was born in 1885.
Was naturalized in 1908 (age 23)
Then WWI broke out in 1917 (age 32)
Then he was renaturalized in 1925.

I think I would check and see where he was and what he was up to during WWI. It's possible he pretended to NOT be a US citizen during WWI to avoid the service. Or maybe he didn't get the original papers and never realized the process was completed.

Or when it came time to sign up for the draft, he realized he couldn't find his papers and like Miriam said, thought it'd be easier to reapply.

You may never know why, but if you haven't already, I would check the WWI draft cards and see if he registered and what citizenship he listed there.

[Tim Agazio]

Miriam, fM, Apple,

Thank you...I think those genealogy gods are teasing me because from this one piece of info I now have a hundred more questions I didn't have a couple of days ago. I had stopped working on my grandfather because I had no other places to go...I sure do now.

Fortunately I tend to get lucky like this quite often...I just can't win the lottery, however.

Tim

[Apple]

Congrats Tim! I love to see someone else get lucky like this, it gives the rest of us hope.

[footnoteMaven]

Things are good in Washington. Even cyber-Washington.

Congratulations on this great discovery! The genealogy Gods give us one like this to keep us going. And it works.

fM

[Miriam Robbins Midkiff]

Congratulations, Tim! There's a lot of genealogical treasures in Washington State, trust me! I see he was in Republic, a good morning's drive northwest from Spokane. Makes sense, since I remember you once said he was in Bonner County, Idaho, which is another good morning's northEAST from Spokane. Was he in mining, lumber, or railroading? All three were main occupations in the Inland Northwest in that time period.

My guess as to why Antonio ended up going through the declaration of intention twice is that he never finished the naturalization process, and probably didn't know how to find the paperwork from Washington, so he just went ahead and restarted the process in Colorado. It would have been much easier, I suppose.