@Rosemarie – you are FAR better off trying to work with the county clerk, librarian and any other record keepers in your local jurisdiction (or the jurisdiction where your ancestors lived) than dealing with any of the Federal offices. In my case, my grandfather (from other side of the family) lives in the county where my GGF lived. He went to the county clerk I believe and they helped him dig out the info needed. In my case, the SF consulate was willing to take those documents (properly certified of course) as enough data.

On the spelling thing, I didn’t have any issues with the fact that my GGF was born Prospero but lived his life as Dante (and was buried with that on his tombstone in Italy). What’s important is to get enough of the dates and names to line up so you can prove they are the same people. You’re effectively telling a story. I was able to show my GGF going through Ellis Island under his original name and then one name on the draft card and the other name on my GFs birth certificate but they all had the same date of birth and hometown on it. When a reasonable person looks at it, it’s obvious it’s the same person.

I’ve heard stories on the east coast that they are much more demanding but that was my experience in SF.

The apostille comes from the state where each document originates. In my case, my mother was born in Colorado so first I requested it via fax, received it, and then immediately mailed it off to the Secretary of State of Colorado to get the apostille.

I found my Grandfather’s naturalization documents on the wedsite of the Clerk of Courts for his county. I was able to obtain a certified copy through a library in that county that works in partership with the Court for archival/old documents. I was able to print my own copy, and it took about a week to get a certified copy from the county. It’s probably worth trying that route – it sounds a whole lot faster than what you’re going through.

Steph

Thank you so much for this blog – it helped immensely! I learned some very interesting things about the family, a few that no one else knows – not sure whether I should tell them… The last document slipped into place today when my Grandfather’s birth certificate arrived from Italy! I sent eveything out to Gabriella to translate, thank you for posting her contact info, and the originals have been sent to the various states for apostilles. Given how bad handwriting was back then I’ve found several spellings of Pellegrino, and sometime along the way my Grandmother’s family changed their name from Gambone to Gamble, and I’ve come across multiple versions of each. Hopefully the application doesn’t get bounced for that, especially after waiting 2 YEARS to present it. My Dad is 75 and is so very excited about claiming his citizenship – I want this more for him than any of us! I was just hoping to get it before our trip next fall.l..

Anyway, thank you again for sharing your “journey”, and now that I’ve been down this road myself, what a “journey” it’s been!

Steph

I hope it goes well for your brother. I try to tell people to enjoy the process because “the process” is MOST of the journey. I also say, when I stepped out of the Consulate & took a breath of crisp S.F. air my eyes filled with tears and a RUSH of emotion that was overwhelming & gratifying. So much so, I could care less about the $52.00 street cleaning ticket on my car !
People who go through this do it for a reason & typically GET THIS!

My brother, who was unable to apply with us because he lived in Florida, has an appointment sometime next year (about 14 months out). Hopefully the extra help will cut that time down!

@Maria – your appt was in September, what happened and how did it go?