Select Page

The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Polk Library Archives and Area Research Center has expanded access to its unique collection of genealogical records by adding a fully searchable naturalization index to its Web site, the first of its kind in Wisconsin.

Developed by UW Oshkosh’s emerging technologies librarian Maccabee Levine, the index allows researchers to search through more than 25,000 records of immigrants who sought United States’ citizenship in the circuit courts of Green Lake, Marquette and Winnebago counties.

Records from Dodge and Fond du Lac counties will be added over the next year. The index features flexible searching options and the ability to order copies directly from the results page.

“The application expands access to what has become a world-wide audience for our unique research collections. It also makes our research services more efficient, allowing for faster turn around time on copy orders,” said Joshua Ranger, University archivist.

“With the application has come a new fee structure that charges very modest prices for copies of these records. Future online projects will include indexes to historical civil court and probate records, which will make Polk Library the leader in UW System in providing this important online service to genealogists,” he said.

For more than 50 years, UW Oshkosh has been home to the Oshkosh Area Research Center, a Polk library-operated “branch office” of the Wisconsin Historical Society’s archives division.

Genealogists with ancestors in Green Lake, Marquette and Winnebago counties can begin researching their ancestors at www.uwosh.edu/archives/naturalizations.