Strunk Response 1
Strunk Response 1
Strunk Response 1
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Passport Applications<br />
Page 1 of 8<br />
Archives.qov Home Subiect Index Contact Us FAQs Espariol<br />
-m<br />
Genealoaists/Familv Historians<br />
Passport Applications<br />
GENEALOGISTS1 &!&t E-mail BookmarkIShare<br />
FAMILY BISTORIANS<br />
What You Can Do on This<br />
Web Site<br />
Forms. Tools 8 Aids<br />
Start Your Genealoqy<br />
Research<br />
Research Tonics for<br />
Genealoaists<br />
Genealoav Links<br />
FAQs<br />
Passport Applications<br />
Updated August 15,2008<br />
Table of Contents<br />
Part 1: Introduction<br />
Part 2: Search Strateav<br />
Part 3: TVD~S of Passoort A~wlications<br />
GENEALOGY<br />
RESOURCES<br />
Carinq for Your Family<br />
Archives<br />
Publications<br />
Genealoav Workshops<br />
Visit Us<br />
National Archives Online<br />
Cataloqs<br />
Hire an Independent<br />
Researcher<br />
Go to the Research<br />
Main Paae<br />
S~ecial<br />
Insular<br />
Miscellaneous Related Records<br />
Part 4: Where to Find these Records<br />
Part 5: For More Information<br />
Part 1: Introduction<br />
Passport appllcations can be an excellent source of genealogical information, especially about<br />
forelgn-born individuals. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has<br />
passport applications from Oct. 1795-Mar. 1925; the U.S. De~artment of State has passport<br />
applications from Apr. 1925 to the present.<br />
The Department of State has issued passports to American citizens traveling abroad since<br />
1789, but did not have sole authority to do so until August 23, 1856, when Congress passed<br />
an act (11 Stat. 60) prohibiting other governmental entities, such as state and judicial<br />
authorities, from issuing passports.<br />
Foreign travel in the nineteenth century was much more frequent than one might expect.<br />
Overseas travelers included businessmen, the middie class, and naturalized U.S. citizens who<br />
returned to their homelands to visit relatives. For example, statistics show that the State<br />
Department issued 130,360 passports between 1810 and 1873, more than 369,844 between<br />
1877 and 1909, and more than 1,184,085 between 1912 and 1925. It is unknown how many<br />
American citizens traveled abroad with passports issued by state or judicial authorities prior<br />
to 1856 or without any passport prior to 1918.<br />
Although 95 percent of mid-19th century passport applicants were men, many women also<br />
traveled overseas. If the applicant was to be accompanied by his wife, children, servants, or<br />
other females under his protection, their names, ages, and relationship to the applicant were<br />
stated on the passport apgication. One passport was then issued to cover the whole group.<br />
Likewise, when chldren traveled abroad soldy with their mother, Ebeir names and ages were<br />
indicated on the mother's passport application. Passport applications by women in their own<br />
names became more frequent in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and by 1923<br />
women constituted over 40 percent of passport applicants.<br />
http ://www.archives .gov/genealogy/passportJ 8/5/20 1 0
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