$1 For My Passport and Names that Are Not Indexed

It cost a dollar to get a United States passport in 1889. At least that is the fee that William Ehmen paid when making his application.

Ehmen’s passport was issued under the name of William Eman instead of William Ehmen. He explains the reason why in his application. His application was dated 29 March 1889 and included a note written on his own stationery as a notary public in Gothenburg, Nebraska.

This is the first time I’ve seen a copy of his stationery anywhere. Of course, Ehmen did not notarize any of the documents in his own application, but the note written on his own stationery was a nice find.

These passport applications appear in Ancestry.com‘s “U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925” and are indexed. They are indexed under the name of the passport application only. There are other names that appear on these records, but those references will have to be located manually.

Depending upon the time period and personal situation of the passport applicant, other people mentioned may include:

• name of father–generally if the passport application in the early 20th century or later.  Some earlier passports may mention the father if the citizenship of the father was obtained via the father’s naturalization.
• name of others travelling with applicant. Some earlier passport applications may include names of family members travelling with the applicant.
• names of colleagues, coworkers, or neighbors. If additional documentation was needed, there may be a letter from someone familiar with the applicant, his citzenship status, age, general moral character, etc.
• notary public or other official.
• person to whom the passport was to be sent. In some cases passports were not sent to the applicant but to someone handling his travel arrangements.

This item was located in the United States passport database on Ancestry.com.