It’s Travel Time: The Beauty of Passport Applications
While many Danish immigrants who settled in the United States sadly never saw their family in Denmark again, many others did travel back to visit. Ancestry and FamilySearch both have digitized U.S. passport applications from the National Archives and Records Administration--an incomplete collection, but one that includes passports from 1795-1925. The later, post-WWI passports are especially wonderful. Not only is there specific biographical information on the citizen applying, such as an exact birth date and birthplace in Denmark, father’s name, and immigration year, there are often photos and sometimes letters or documents attached explaining the reason for travel. In the above example, a letter from a brother in Denmark requests help with settling an aunt’s estate.
Not only are these illuminating for research, they are also interesting just to browse. Few other types of records compile that much information in one place, making for a rich source if your ancestors happened to be traveling during that time.
