{"id":521,"date":"2006-08-26T22:56:04","date_gmt":"2006-08-27T05:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/26\/stephania-meleskis-petition-for-naturalization\/"},"modified":"2016-05-22T18:42:43","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T01:42:43","slug":"stephania-meleskis-petition-for-naturalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/521","title":{"rendered":"Stephania Meleski&#8217;s Petition for Naturalization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Great Aunt Stephania\u00c2\u00a0became of citizen of the United States\u00c2\u00a0on March 2, 1944 .\u00a0 By law, she had to complete the naturalization process between two and seven years after filing her Declaration of Intention .\u00a0 She had filed her Declaration on November 25, 1940, so she was well within the required window of time.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\u00c2\u00a0<a class=\"imagelink\" title=\"Stephania Meleski's Petition for Naturalization - Front\" href=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/NAP-Meleski-Stephania-Front.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"image518\" style=\"width: 465px; height: 661px;\" src=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/NAP-Meleski-Stephania-Front.jpg\" alt=\"Stephania Meleski's Petition for Naturalization - Front\" width=\"465\" height=\"661\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><em>Stephania Meleski&#8217;s Petition for Naturalization &#8211; Front<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\u00c2\u00a0<a class=\"imagelink\" title=\"Stephania Meleski's Petition for Naturalization - Back\" href=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/NAP-Meleski-Stephania-Back.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"image519\" style=\"width: 462px; height: 699px;\" src=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/NAP-Meleski-Stephania-Back.jpg\" alt=\"Stephania Meleski's Petition for Naturalization - Back\" width=\"462\" height=\"699\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><em>Stephania Meleski&#8217;s Petition for Naturalization &#8211; Back<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Click on the link for a PDF copy of the <a href=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/IMP-Meleski-Stefania-1943.pdf\">Petition for Naturalization for Stephania Meleski &#8211; 1944<\/a> .\u00a0 The Petition shows that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">Stefania Chmielewska changed her name to Stephania Meleski as part of the naturalization process on Petition for Naturalization No. 39405<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">Stephania filed her Petition at the Superior Court of Massachusetts at Worcester<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">Stephania still lived at 15 Charlton St. Worcester, Mass and worked in a rooming house<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">She was 57 years old, and was born on Jan. 7, 1886 in Likiszki, Vilna, Poland<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">She was female, white, of medium complexion, with hazel eyes, brown hair, 5 feet 2 inches tall, 125 pounds, and had a mole on her chin<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">She was of the white race, of Polish nationality, was not married, and had no children<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">Her last place of foreign residence was Likiszki, Vilna, Poland<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">She emigrated from Bremen, Germany and entered New York, N.Y. under the name Stefania Chmielewska on Sept. 16, 1901 on an unknown ship<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">Since entering the United States, she had not been absent for a period of 6 months or longer<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">She declared her intention to become a citizen of the United States on November 25, 1940 in the Superior Court of Massachusetts at Worcester, Mass.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">She had been in the United States for at least five years, that is to say, since Sept. 16, 1901 and continuously in the state of Massachusetts for at least six months, that is, since Feb. 1933<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">Stephania&#8217;s Petition was witnessed by Harriett Bell Thurston, a housewife,\u00a0and Harry C. Thurston, retired, both residing at 56 Elm St. Worcester, Mass.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">The Petition was subscribed and sworn at Worcester, Massachusetts on December 13, 1941 before Carl L. [Greenslil?], Deputy Clerk for William C. Bowen, Clerk<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">Stephania&#8217;s Certificate of Arrival was No. 1X 81667<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">Stephania made her Oath of Allegiance on March 2, 1944 and was granted Certificate No. 6119990 by Carl L. [Greenslil?], Deputy Clerk for William C. Bowen, Clerk<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"left\">In the three years since filing her Declaration of Intention, Great Aunt Stephania has changed her name, gained five pounds, developed a mole on her chin, changed her race from Polish to white, specified that Likiszki, Poland was Likiszki, Vilna, Poland, and still can&#8217;t remember the ship on which she immigrated.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">But, most interesting of all is her statement that she had been in Massachusetts since February of 1933 .\u00a0 Since she immigrated in 1901, where did she spend the first 32 years of her life in America?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" align=\"left\">Copyright \u00a9 2006 by Stephen J. Danko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Great Aunt Stephania\u00c2\u00a0became of citizen of the United States\u00c2\u00a0on March 2, 1944 .\u00a0 By law, she had to complete the naturalization process between two and seven years after filing her Declaration of Intention .\u00a0 She had filed her Declaration on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/521\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[197,214],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chmielewskimeleski","tag-immigration","tag-naturalization"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pyBfX-8p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19180,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions\/19180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}