U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925

The U.S. government has issued passports to American citizens since 1789, albeit through several different agencies throughout the years. For the most part, passports were not required of U.S. citizens for foreign travel until World War I. Passports were required for a short time during the Civil War (Aug. 19, 1861-Mar. 17, 1862). An Executive Order given in 1915, and then later an act of Congress given in 1918, established the passport requirement for citizens traveling abroad. This law lapsed with the formal termination of World War I through treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary in 1921. In 1941, with the onset of World War II, the Congressional act of 1918 was reinstated. U.S. citizens have been required to carry a passport for foreign travel ever since.

This database contains passport applications from 1795-1925, including emergency passport applications (passports issued abroad) from 1877-1907. It also contains passport application registers for 1810-1817, 1830-1831, and 1834-1906. Passports issued March 4-5, 1919 (numbers 67500-67749) are missing from the NARA collection and therefore, are missing from this database as well.

Some passport applications include a photo of the applicant. To receive a U.S. passport, a person had to submit proof of U.S. citizenship. This was usually in the form of a letter, affidavits of witnesses, and certificates from clerks or notaries. Sometimes these other documents are included as part of the application.

There was a variety of passport application forms used throughout the years. By 1888 there were separate application forms for native citizens, naturalized citizens, and derivative citizens. As a result, all of the above listed information may not be available for every applicant. Likewise, there may be additional information, other than what is shown above, listed on the application form. Some information may only be obtained by viewing the image of the application.

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What Will the U.S. Passport Applications Collection Reveal About Your Ancestors?

My great-great-grandfather has a medium mouth.

At least, that’s what some Joe Schmoe wrote on his passport application in 1892.

Actually, that Joe Schmoe’s name is Horatio Pickett, and he also said my grandfather had a large nose. His description for my great-great-grandfather’s face? Common.

C’mon, Horatio. Now you’re just asking for it.

Passports became common in the 1840s, but were not required until after World War I. The U.S. Passport Applications Collection contains more than 2 million passport applications filed by residents of the U.S. Of those, around 300,000 contain photographs of the applicant. Information can include date and place of birth, residence, naturalization, and other biographical information. To search the U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, go here.

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My Genealogical Christmas Wish

by Juliana Smith

The other day I was browsing through some of the genealogy blogs on the Web, and I ran across a post on the "Carnival of Genealogy." "Blog carnivals" collect posts on a related topic and link to them in one place--kind of like one-stop-shopping for bloggers. The current topic they have posted is "Christmas Wish Lists for Genealogists." As I scanned through the various posts, I found myself nodding in agreement with some and took solace in posts by folks like me who wish to get caught up with their filing, database entering, and other little tasks that tend to pile up.

That is my one genealogical holiday wish, and it comes at a critical time. With an upcoming birthday in the family and holiday get- togethers on the calendar, this is a dangerous time of year for my family history. To top it off, I'm working on another project with my mom--a project that has had me pulling out documents for various branches of my family tree and just about every reference book I own. All of this clutter and the nice stack of records I pillaged from the recently added U.S. passports database have conspired to turn my office into a war zone.

The danger lies in the temptation to just box up the clutter and stash it in a closet until after the holidays--out of sight from holiday guests and out of mind for me. But that just makes things worse. Plus I need my closet space to stash presents.

The good news is that my fate is in my own hands. I can do the annual "stash it now/regret it later" thing, or I can take a little time and come out of this holiday season a little more organized than I went in. Today I choose the latter!

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What Reference Books Should I Own?

by George G. Morgan

I wrote a column for the Ancestry Daily News a number of years ago that enumerated my ten favorite genealogy books, some genealogy reference CD-ROMs, and my favorite websites. One of the readers of the Ancestry Weekly Journal wrote to Juliana and asked for an article about what specific genealogy research books, common to both beginners and advanced researchers, would be recommended for every serious researcher to have in his or her library.

This is a difficult challenge for several reasons. First, it is a subjective matter and depends on what geographical area an individual is researching. Second, a list that is too "generic" risks losing people's interest. Finally, the fact is that books are an expensive commodity and not everyone can afford to buy every title they would like to have.

However, there certainly is a core collection of books that every genealogist would find helpful to have close at hand as reference materials for their research. I'll accept the challenge with the understanding that your list and my list may or may not be the same, and that some of the books may not be applicable to your research. However, it makes sense for each of us to consider a personal genealogical reference library that includes books from each of the categories below.

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