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Blog Entries on Important Documents

What Can Ancestor’s US Passport Application Forms Tell You?

Genealogy is a fascinating topic and a popular hobby. If your ancestors were travelers, one way to find out about them is to look up their old passport applications, if you can.  In 2007, Ancestry.com released a collection of US passport application forms from 1795 to 1925.

What can your ancestor’s US passport application forms tell you about them? Lots! Applications generally included biographical data like names and birthdates, and more personal information like occupations and physical descriptions, plus information about the applicant’s foreign travel plans. 

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New Passport Rules Keep Elderly Couple From Alaskan Dream Cruise

All Larry and Gladys Williams wanted was to go on a cruise to Alaska. However, their dream was denied when they showed up  at port in Seattle without passports, according to the Dallas Morning News, Larry Williams had assumed that passports weren’t necessary for the journey, since the cruise began in Seattle and ended in Alaska.

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Elderly Woman Denied New Passport To Visit Mexico

An elderly woman from Texas has been denied the opportunity to get a new passport to visit relatives in Mexico, according to this report from a local ABC affiliate.

The woman, Consuelo DeLeon, is 81 years and says she was born in  small town in Texas.

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History of the US Passport

Did you know that the first US passports were actually printed by Ben Franklin? According to this book review of “The Passport: The History Of Man’s Most Travelled Document,” the first US passports were made especially for the  United States legation in Paris, France around 1777.

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