Andrew Klaich's Naturalization Forms

Last week, we finally got the Andrew Klaich's naturalization forms from the Department of Homeland Security.   They gave us his declaration of intention, his petition for naturalization, and his naturalization certificate.  I include all four pages they sent us at the end of this post.

Here are a few things that I noticed:

(1) Date of arrival.  He doesn't remember the boat he arrived on and says that he arrived in New York (coming from Germany) on May 15, 1906.  I still think that he came in May 5, 1905.  His naturalization forms were filled out 30 years after he arrived and I think he just didn't quite remember the details.

(2) The middle name John.  In his 1934 petition for naturalization, he lists his name as Andrew Klaich and says that he does not want his name changed.  But then when he is naturalized in 1940, his name is changed from "Andrew Klaich" to "Andrew John Klaich" "by order of Court."

(3) His widow's peak. The petition comes with a photo.  His petition was filled out when he was in his mid-40s and he definitely has the same widow's peak that I do.  The plus side is that he still had hair... so maybe I'll keep mine.

(4) Blue eyes.  My youngest daughter has blue eyes and I think that she may have inherited that through Andrew.

(5) 5'10".  While he wasn't really tall, he was on the upper end of the height distribution for men coming from his village.  (Though I think the height in my family still comes through Mildred's family.)