US, Illinois—Naturalization Records, 1921–1958 [Part C] [MQLQ-SVK]
Can you see this? Do I index this one? It just looks like a letter.
Answers
-
Yes, you index it. From the Important Detail pop-up:
In this naturalization project, all documents pertaining to the naturalization process should be indexed. Please review the project instructions for how to index these records.
This is indexed as:
GN: Theresia Or Sister Margaret Mary
SN: Foehring
Sex: Male
Record Day: 21
Record Month: Apr
Record Year: 1932
I'm erring on the side of caution and not indexing the PET number (based on similar correspondence in other Nat Projects). I am also taking the sex from the part that says to cover his residence.
Could it be possible to get an example of this, or other similar correspondence, @Ashlee C.?0 -
Sister would imply this person is a female. His is just a general word written in the document. I thought we weren't supposed to infer anything.
Clarification or and example would be super helpful.
Also what's PET?
0 -
Implying is the same as assuming. We don't assume anything. This is a typed document, and yes it says "his", but that is the only direct indication that it's male even though it's wrong. Keep in mind that the only occupation exception is housewife and we had to fight for that. You and I know that she's a woman, but the reference is male. We weren't there in 1932, so we don't know for sure what happened at that point. The standard word? Typo? For now, index the sex since there isn't an example of how to index correspondence. It could go either way.
PET is Petition for Naturalization
DEC is Declaration of Intention
OOA is Oath of Allegiance
AOW is Affidavit of Witness1 -
"Implying is the same as assuming." Um. If you hold to this, then you can't conclude anything from anything, because an M in a "sex" column merely implies "male".
I would restate Tiffany's comment: "Sister indicates that this person is female". In fact, it indicates it a lot more strongly than a masculine pronoun like "his" indicates "male", especially when that pronoun is pre-printed or part of preformulated text. In the 1930s (or in the 1970s, too), you wrote "his", not "his or her", regardless of the expected sex of the person mentioned. (From what I can tell, the letter was pre-typed with the generic text and the blank lines, and then the particulars were added later, possibly with the same typewriter but a different ribbon.)
Also: it is incorrect to index "Sister" as part of the given name. For one thing, the document says "Sr.", not "Sister", and the instructions are not to expand abbreviations, and for another thing, the last line of the field help explicitly says not to index titles, terms, prefixes, or suffixes.
2
