Background

Passport applications may help resolve the problem of locating your ancestral home.  Naturalized immigrants may have applied for passports when they may have returned to visit their native countries.  If they did apply for a passport, their passport records would generally provide information regarding:

• family status,
• date and place of birth,
• naturalization,
• occupation or business, and
• physical characteristics.

Note:    Passports were not always required  - Until 1941, there was no statutory requirement  that American citizens have a passport for travel to most foreign countries (with two exceptions).  Therefore, you may never find a passport (or passport application) for your ancestor, even though you are certain that he had traveled abroad.  There were two exceptions:

• Passports were required for a short time during the Civil War (August 19, 1861-March 17, 1862).
• Later, from May 22, 1918 until the formal termination of World War I in 1921, all persons leaving the United  States required passports to travel abroad.   It may be noted that prior to this time, President Woodrow Wilson's Executive Order of December 15, 1915, stated that all persons leaving the U.S. should have passports.  (This order recommended  passports, but did not require them.)

For additional information on passports, see:  The United States Passport:  Past, Present, and Future; Washington:  U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976.

Searching Passport Records for 1795 to 1925

Ancestry.com has these records indexed online with the images of the passport application

The passport records (including both the indexes and the applications) for this time period are available on microfilm at the National Archives and at your local LDS Family History Center.

Indexes are available on microfilm for passport applications for 1795 to 1925 .  Unless you have specific information regarding the passport, you must start by using these indexes to find the date and number of an application.  Using that information, you can then locate the particular application. However, these finding aids may be incomplete.

Passport Applications are available on microfilm for:

• applications dated October 27, 1795, through March 31, 1925 (there are no applications for the years 1813 to1829 and 1832)
• emergency  applications submitted abroad (1877 to1925), and
• applications for special (diplomatic) passports (1829 to1925).

The following National Archives Microfilm Publications contain some of these records:
M1371, Registers and Indexes  for Passport Applications, 1810-1905
M1848, Index to Passport  Applications, 1850-52, 1860-80,1881, 1906-23
M1372, Passport  Applications, 1795-1905
M1490, Passport Applications, 1906-March  31,1925

The NARA web site provides additional information.

You may write to the National Archives at the following address: (Provide the full name, date of birth and date of citizenship)

National Archives and Records Administration
Archives 1
Reference Branch
8th & Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20408.

These records are listed in the LDS Family History Catalog under:
Emigration and Immigration --- United States ---  Immigration and Naturalization Service.
You may also begin your search of the Family History Catalog by using the film number option and entering the "starting" microfilm numbers as shown in the following table:
 

Searching Passport Records after 1925

Passport records dated after March  31, 1925, remain in the custody of the Department of State,  Passport Services.  These records normally consist of applications for U. S. passports and supporting evidence of U. S citizenship, and are protected by the Privacy Act.  Passport records do not include evidence of travel such as entrance/exit stamps, visas,  residence permits, etc., since this information is entered into the passport book after issuance.

The Privacy Act allows you to obtain copies of records in your own name.  To request a search of these records,  submit: a typed or clearly printed and NOTARIZED request, details of the requirements for the request are located on the Department of State's web site.  A check or money order for $50.00 - made  payable to the Department of State is required.  The request should be sent to:

Department of State
Office of Legal Affairs
Law Enforcement Liaison Division
1111 19th Street, N.W. – Rm. 500
Washington, DC 20036
Contact: (202-955-0447)

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