Anticipation

Anticipation making my heart beat faster, eagerly I opened the envelope. Opening the first paper, I read my great-grandfather's Declaration to become a Naturalized Citizen of the United States.  The feelings I had were almost overwhelming. a mixture of elation, relief and satisfaction as I realized I had finally broken through the impasse and yet another piece of my family's history was now complete. After sixteen years of searching, I had his marriage record, census records, newspaper articles, probate and will, and now finally I knew the month, year and location of his arrival.

Busily, I commenced upon searching passenger lists. It took quite a while, I soon found out there were many ships into New York, May of 1868. Taking into account the constant misspelling of surname as well as his first name, I finally came across his arrival record.

Opening the second paper, this one so very, very special, I read with awe and pride, my great-grandfather's Final Naturalization papers.  Leaving his country and all that he had known before, embarking on not only a new journey, but a new way of life, overcoming the language and culture differences, how courageous he was!  What I had taken for granted all my life, had taken him six years to achieve, he was, as attested, a man of good and moral character, and was now a Citizen of the United States.  How very proud he must have been on that day!

So as I sit here writing this, I am once again eagerly and impatiently, anticipating the arrival of a new day, and with it, the mail.