John Joseph Daley- Naturalization

As I have said before, my great great Grandfather, John Joseph Daley is one of the more mysterious people on my family tree. In several resources in which he states that he was born in New York City. The family legend even says that he was born on the ship from Ireland to New York. However, if he was already a US citizen, I wonder why he went through the process of naturalization.

Only very recently I found John J’s naturalization records. These records are filed in three steps. The first step is the Declaration of Intention. This document provides a lot of background information for an ancestor. For John J, it was one of the only documents I’ve ever found that gave his exact birth date and potential area of origin.

According to John Declaration of Intention, he was a steamfitter who lived in Boston. He filed the papers September, 16, 1910. In the documents he states that he was born in County Galway, Ireland on September 21^st 1869. He also states that he immigrated to Massachusetts from Galway on April 22, 1887. He did not list the name of the ship.

His next documents were his Petition of Naturalization and his Oath of Allegiance. Of the two, the petition gives the most information about John and his family. He filed this particular document in 1915, so the majority of his children were already born. Although, it mistakenly lists his wife as Ella, all of his children are listed in the correct order with the correct birth dates. In addition, the two witnesses who signed the document were both brother in laws to John J.

I was both excited and confused to find these documents. Aside from the fact that John J. states many times that he was born in the US on his personal documents, I know from a reliable source that he did not have an accent. Could that be possible if he arrived in Massachusetts at the age of 18?

I also find it interesting that I know his wife and her family was also from County Galway, Ireland. Did the Daley and Tully families know each other in Ireland? If so, where are the rest of the Daleys? What’s more is that I can not find a passenger record that matches the immigration information john lists on his naturalization records.

All of these questions and more, I still want to answer about my great great grandfather. I’ll keep looking, because I know the answers are out there somewhere.