Travel with your ancestors
on the journey that led to you.
Travel with your ancestors on the journey that led to you.
Search our vast collection of immigration and travel records to discover your immigrant story.
Search our vast collection of immigration and travel records to discover your immigrant story.
Border crossing records can provide many valuable details such as last residence, occupation and other family members. And passports typically record a wealth of information, including immigration and naturalization details; many records even have photographs. Armed with what you find in a passport, you can search for your ancestors’ citizenship details.
Find your family in border crossings & passports
Find your family in border crossings & passports
Simply add what you know. Even a guess can help.
Featured Collections
Featured Collections
Border Crossings & Passport Research Resources
Border Crossings & Passport Research Resources
Good to know
Who had a U.S. passport? Get the details on these important documents.
In case of emergency passports
Some U.S. passports were granted in exceptional circumstances – and far away from America.
Border Crossings & Passport Stories
Border Crossings & Passport Stories
Passports reveal another side of Aunt Hilma’s life
See what one member discovered about her ancestor in a passport application.
WATCH NOW: Researchers help you find your immigrant roots.
WATCH NOW: Researchers help you find your immigrant roots.
A simple DNA test can show you where your immigration story began.
A simple DNA test can show you where your immigration story began.
Immigration and Emigration Message Boards
Immigration and Emigration Message Boards
Connect with other people searching for their immigration stories.
- A passport is an official document issued by the government that certifies the holder’s identity and citizenship.
- While the U.S. government has issued passports to American citizens since 1789, passports were not required of U.S. citizens for foreign travel until World War I.
- A birth certificate or an affidavit from someone who knew the applicant (often a relative) was typically used as proof of citizenship for those born in the United States and may be included with the application file.
- It wasn’t only the wealthy who traveled — naturalized immigrants often returned to their homelands for visits.
- Passports were issued only to U.S.-born and naturalized citizens, although there were occasional exceptions: aliens who had declared their intention to become citizens through the naturalization process could be issued a passport during the years 1863-66 and 1907-20.
- Photographs were required with passport applications beginning in late 1914.
- Frequent travelers may have more than one passport application on file.
- In cases where families were traveling together, the entire family may be listed on the father’s passport.
- Applications may instruct that the passport be sent to a mailing address that differs from the applicant’s permanent address, which may be the address of a relative.
- Passport applications usually consist of multiple pages; when viewing passport applications at Ancestry, page forward and backwards through the online file to see if there’s additional information.
Emergency passports are somewhat different from traditional passports. First, they were issued to U.S. citizens who were overseas. Second, they were issued only under exceptional circumstances.
But what defined “exceptional”? An emergency passport may have been issued to a traveling American who lost his or her passport abroad. Or when an American male working out of the country needed proof-of-residence to avoid local conscription. Emergency passports were also issued to foreign-born women living overseas who married U.S. citizens and to the woman’s children until they could reach American soil.
Emergency passports were valid for a short period of time – usually just one year – so it’s not uncommon to find a person applying for an emergency passport again and again, especially during war years. You’ll find emergency passports as well as the traditional variety in the U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 collection at Ancestry.
“I found Aunt Hilma in the same place I first found my grandfather’s family: Barry County, Michigan, in the 1900 census. I found her again in the 1910 census, in Kalamazoo, single, working as a nurse. But when I went to the 1920 census and tried Kalamazoo, she wasn’t there. Her future husband, Art Lynch, was. But no Aunt Hilma. Where was she?
I found my answer in a passport application at Ancestry by searching for only the name Hilma born 1887 in Illinois. There she was as Hilma Anderson Cornett, complete with the story I was seeking.
Hilma had married James Cornett, an Irish immigrant, who died shortly after their marriage. In May 1916, she applied for a passport to go to Ireland to visit James’ family and settle his estate. Hilma couldn’t find safe passage home during World War I, and her passport lapsed.
In 1919, Hilma reapplied for a passport from the American Consulate in Belfast. Her application included the date and place of her marriage to James: 15 April 1915, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I also found a ship record for her return to America aboard the S.S. Baltic, arriving on 10 April 1920 — after the census date in January.”
— Lori Anderson Semashko
Your ancestors took their DNA to the new world. Where will your DNA take you?
Your ancestors took their DNA to the new world. Where will your DNA take you?
Your ancestors took everything they could carry, including a little bit of their past. Now with AncestryDNA, you can open completely new avenues of research and uncover a time in your past that’s just beyond the records and paper trails. Find out where your ancestors lived, maybe discover a new ethnicity or connect to new relatives. A distant cousin could lead you to new clues, missing information and new answers.
What you get with AncestryDNA:
What you get with AncestryDNA:
Ethnicity Discovery Reveal your ethnic roots and explore your ancestors’ birth locations on a modern day map.
New Connections Find new cousins to grow your family tree with a list of DNA matches.
Relevant History Discover more of your recent past—up to a thousand years.
Advanced Science A technologically advanced DNA test that comprehensively looks at both sides of your family.
Complete Experience Built to be integrated with the vast collection of records, family trees and community on Ancestry.
Continually Updated Receive new DNA matches and updates on ethnicity findings to broaden your search.