Among the more important docments that can be use to trace an ancestor, especially an immigrant ancestor, are those related to travel. And principal among these is the passport application. If a researcher is lucky (or delegent) enough to find an ancestor’s passport application, the information found there can be very revealing. In addition to the name and age of the applicant and the place of issuance, a passport application may also provide a physical description, business or occupation, place of birth, and place of residence, as well as destination. Information regarding an applicant’s family status (single or married) and naturalization (if foreign born) may also be available. Early passport applications were sometimes accompanied by supporting letters and affidavits from friends or relatives concerning the applicant’s citizenship, residence, and character.

Passports and related documents are part of National Archives Record Group 59, General Records of the Department of State. That department has issued passports to U.S. citizens since 1789. However, the specific State Department office or bureau having administrative control over the function has shifted several times during the intervening years. Because of this, researchers need to understand that a passport file can be found in one of a number of different record divisions.

The Chief Clerk’s office issued passports until 1833, when that duty was transferred to the Translating and Miscellaneous Bureau. The function was then transferred from one bureau to another until 1870 when the Passport Bureau was established, although it ceased to exist three years later when its duties were transferred to a “passport clerk.” In 1895 the Bureau of Accounts took over the issuing of passports, and on July 3, 1902, the function was assigned to the newly created Passport Bureau. That bureau’s name has since changed several times: Bureau of Citizenship, 1907; Division of Passport Control, 1918; Passport Division, 1926; and Passport Office, 1952.

With two exceptions, U.S. citizens were not required to have a passport for travel abroad until 1941. Passports were required for a short time during the Civil War, August 19, 1861, through March 17, 1862. Executive Order 2285 of December 15, 1915, stated that all persons leaving the United States should have a passport, and an act of Congress on May 22, 1918, made it unlawful for U.S. citizens to travel abroad without a valid passport. In 1921, this law lapsed with the formal termination of the war through treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary. On June 21, 1941, the 1918 act was revived (55 Stat. 252), and U.S. citizens have since been required to have passports for foreign travel.

While there is much more that could be said about the process used in applying for and receiving a passport, emphasis in this article is on the thirteen-rolls of National Archives Microfilm Publication M1371, Registers and Index to the Passport Applications, 1810-1906. At Clayton Library, this microfilm is located in the second floor microprint areain, cabinet 64, drawer 3. Once a researcher locates a passport application using the M1371 indexes, it is possible to find the actual application file. These are imaged on the much larger Microfilm Publication M1372 (600 rolls). Clayton does not currently own this latter microfilm publication.

Microfilm Publication M1371 images the various indexes created by the Passport Office of the Department of State (and its predecessor offices) to aid in finding specific passport applications. The thirteen rolls of this collection consist of the following:

Rolls 1–9: Registers and indexes for passport applications, December 21, 1810 – October 7, 1817; February 22, 1830 – November 15, 1831; and November 14, 1834 – February 1906. The usual register or index entry shows the date and number (where applicable) of the application, the name of the applicant, and (for 1834–1849) the applicant’s age and physical characteristics. Overlapping dates appear for some of the register or index volumes, and some entries appear in more than one volume. A special register covers Civil War passports, 1861–1865. Entries in some volumes are arranged chronologically, while others are arranged alphabetically by the first three letters of the applicant’s surname and thereunder in chronological order.

Rolls 10 and 11: Indexes to emergency passport applications, 1874–1906, for passports issued to U.S. citizens by U.S. consular and diplomatic officers abroad. The entries in each index volume show the date and number of each application as well as the location of the diplomatic or consular post that received it. Entries are arranged alphabetically by surname of the applicant.

Roll 12: Indexes to special passport applications, 1829–1894, for passports issued to U.S. diplomatic and consular officers, military attaches, secretaries of legations, and other government officers and their families. Arranged alphabetically by surname of the applicant, each index entry shows the name of the applicant, date of application, and the volume and page numbers where the application can be found. No indication, however, is given as to the person’s governmental position; the actual passport copy will have to be accessed to determine this information.

Roll 13 (Part 1): Index to the passport applications received by the New York Passport Office, August 24, 1861 to February 24, 1862. Each index entry gives the date, name of application, and the application or passport number. Entries are arranged in alphabetical order by the first letter of the applicant’s name and thereunder chronologically.

Roll 13 (Part 2): Registers of miscellaneous special passports issued 1835–1869. These are

1. Register of special passports issued at New York, 1862–1869, with each entry showing the name and address of the recipient, the passport number, the fee paid, and the date of the payment;
2. Register of “Special Passports Granted by John Forsyth, Secretary of State,” and by successor secretaries of state, 1836–1864, showing the name and destination of the passport bearer and the number and date of the passport;
3. Register of “Special Courier Passports,” 1865–1869;
4. “Passport account of J. B. Nones,” which is a record of fees received for passports, 1867; and
5. “Passport Account of George F. Baker,” 1864–1869.

As I remind my classes, read the preface at the front of all microfilm. The descriptive information is there for a reason; it can be vital to a quick but thorough search. Example: Roll 3 described above is explicit in telling you that it is an "Index to Passport Applications, Feb. 16, 1856 – Dec. 30, 1865; Registers of Passports Issued by Secretary of State William H. Seward, Mar. 1861 – Dec. 1865; and Index to Passport Applications, Jan. 2, 1866 – Dec. 31, 1871."

While these rolls are “indexes” to the actual passport application files, in some cases the added notes are valuable. Several examples are

• Henry Boyd “a mulatto physician.” May 12, 1811.
• Nathan Levy “a well known Citizen.” March 27, 1812.
• Charles Brown “known to John Jacob Astor.” September 10, 1814.
• Rev. John Kewley “rect S’George Church. 54, 5.8, fair complexion, sandy hair and blue eyes.”
• William B. Astor “son of Jno. Jacob Astor.” Also gives physical description.

A great number of the applicants seem to have been from New York, Baltimore, and Washington, but there are some from other parts of the country, presumably applying by mail, such as these in October 1835:

• Wm. Haile, #4030, Cold Springs, Mississippi
• H. Clay, #4032, Ashland, Kentucky. “requested for Abraham Barton and sent to Barton in New Orleans”
• Pierce Connelly, #4040, of Natchez, Mississippi

Many records specifically related to passports are part of the holdings of the National Archives and are in various departments and record groups,² leading to other possibilities within this category. Among the duties of a consular officer is the issuing of passports to American citizens. Documents related to this function are found in Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State 1788–1964 (RG 84). Also, within Records of Organizational Units 1756–1978 (part of RG 59) are found records of the Passport Division and field offices, 1790–1917, which include passport applications, 1795–1905, and related records. The records relating to foreign affairs, found in the Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses (Numbered Series) 1765–1821 (part of RG 360) will include applications for passports or sea letters, 1788–1793.

Travel documents, including passports, often differed from country to country. As we have seen in the M1371 collection, it would be prudent of the researcher to make a general background search of laws, agencies, and terms to discover the whys and wherefores of the records themselves and their locations.

While we most often think of a passport as an overseas travel document, we need to remember that passports were also issued for travel in Indian country. These are found in Records of the Office of the Secretary of War Relating to Indian Affairs 1794–1824 (part of RG 75). Examples of such passports have been published in Passports Issued By Governors of Georgia, 1785 to 1809 and 1810 to 1820.³ One abstracted order (January 5, 1810) grants a passport to Travis George, with his wife, two children and one negro. The same order also grants a passport for Fleming Tynes, his wife, two children, and one negro; one for John and Seth Smart, the former with a wife and two children; and one for John Warren, his wife, two children, and seven negroes. Another order (December 19, 1809) grants a passport to Mr. Samuel Wilson, his wife, and children to travel through the Creek Nation of Indians.

A “permit to emigrate,” in some countries, for example, was combined with the passport into a single “exit visa” issued by district or provincial authorities. While the passport allowed the person to cross jurisdictional boundaries, the permit to emigrate certified that the man had paid his bills, settled his affairs in the community, and was free to leave the country.

These identification papers were carried on the person of the emigrant, as they are now, and local clerks recorded information from them, first in court or council minute books and, by the nineteenth century, in emigration registers. Often duplicate copies of the documents were made, labeled, and filed in local archives.

A family may have an oral history of an emigrant who came to America illegally, and one might assume that there are no emigration-related record on this person. Not necessarily so! If an emigrant left illegally, especially without paying the fees and getting the proper papers, these, too, were recorded in the emigrant registers of that country. Sometimes a statement from others about the person’s intended destination or actual whereabouts were also recorded along with notations concerning potential inheritance rights, from which emigration fees might be extracted.

As with most record collections, those relating to travel documents rarely stand alone. Almost all will have collateral records which should be researched.

1. A charter member of the Clayton Library Friends, Mrs. Beverly teaches a series of popular genealogical classes in the Houston area and presents lectures and workshops throughout Texas and elsewhere. She serves as a “regular” on the conference staff for Angelina College’s Summer Genealogical Conference in Lufkin, Texas, now in its fourth year.
2. See Guide to the National Archives of the United States (Washington, 1987) in the reference section at Clayton. An electronic version of the Guide is now also available on the Internet at http://www.nara.gov/guide/.
3. By Mary G. Bryan, published in two volumes by the National Genealogical Society (1962, 1964).