At this point a certificate of citizenship was issued documenting the fact. This book contains signed statements of individuals' intentions to become citizens of the United States. The records were kept by the court clerk on preprinted forms. The declarations of intention have blanks for the insertion of the individual's name, his former sovereign, date, and signatures of the individual and the court clerk witnessing the statement. Declarations of intention document the applicant's intention to later become a U.S. citizen and to renounce his current citizenship.
Entries are chronological.
Some of the declarations of intention for the First District Court from the territorial period were recorded in volumes used by other courts. Copies of these declarations may also be found in the case files of the First District Court. First District Court minutes may contain more details about specific naturalization hearings. County probate courts held concurrent jurisdiction in citizenship cases during this time, and records of these could also be checked. At statehood in 1896, the district court began keeping separate series of naturalization records and declarations of intention in each county.