Monday, April 23, 2012

Passport Applications, 1795-1905 on Archive.Org Unindexed--Well not Quite

US passport applications are on Archive.org at no charge. The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has allowed their microfilm copy to be digitized. The problem for most users it that the film on Archive.org is not indexed.

The US Passport Applications, 1795-1905 are indexed on Fold3.com. Non-subscribers to the site can  search the passport application from 1795-1905 on Fold3.com and view "mini" versions of the documents and source information without a membership. This is done after searching and clicking on "quick look" after the search results come up.

Here is my search for the last name of Goldenstein.

I clicked on "Quick Look"

This pulls up the screen with more information:

This tells me that Goldenstein's application is on roll 0685 of these passport applications. The passport applications are actually NARA microfilm publication M1372. The passports between 1795 and 1905 are on Archive.org.

On Archive.org, I searched for "passport applications 685" (without the quotes) as shown below:

The only hit was for the "roll" that contains Goldenstein's application. The applications are not alphabetical on the roll so I had to scroll through the entire microfilm roll, but I did find Goldenstein's application.



The passport application from 1795-1905 are on Fold3.com. They are also on Ancestry.com from 1795-1925 as well. But you can't do this trick with Ancestry.com.

1 comment:

  1. This is great! I love finding alternative ways to search historical collections.

    ReplyDelete