Ancestry.com released a collection of U.S. Passport Applications spanning from 1795 to 1925 and including names of nearly 2.4 million American travelers. Babe Ruth filled one out to before sailing to Havana, Cuba, for a 1918 baseball game. Walt Disney and Ernest Hemingway submitted applications so they could travel to Europe and drive ambulances during World War I. And pictures of Tom Cruise’s great-grandparents – Thomas and Anna Mapother – adorn their application filled out in 1924 in preparation for a European tour.

Passport applications beginning in 1914 included photographs of the applicants, giving many people today the rare opportunity to see the faces
of their ancestors. The documents also include applicants’ occupations, foreign destinations and physical descriptions. Alexander Graham Bell’s 1920 application, for example, described him as having a high forehead, a straight nose and slim mouth, a clean tanned complexion, and a full white beard – which is clearly evident in the photo attached to his application.

You can even find Paris Hilton’s great-grandfather Conrad Hilton, Donald Trump’s grandfather Fred Trump, Drew Barrymore’s grandfather John Barrymore and two of George W Bush’s great-grandfathers – Samuel Prescott Bush and George H. Walker.

Babe Ruth’s photo when he filed for passport before sailing to Cuba

Related posts:

1. ESPN.com, Orbitz launch ESPN Sports Passport for fans to share sports experiences
2. .asia domain opens with 300,000 domain applications
3. Morph Labs releases on-demand platform for web applications
4. Photobucket launches new applications on MySpace
5. Ancestry.com selects LignUp to give voice to family histories

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