Genealogy Chat

Do any of you good people know when passports first came into use? Is there any way of tracking down an application? Sarah.

Hi Sarah found this Passports have been around in some form since far back in history. In Roman times there was a need for travellers to be identified as a Roman citizen or someone with a right to protection while abroad and a right to return to his or her country. Passports, letters of transit and similar documents were used for centuries to allow people to travel safely in foreign lands, but the use of the passport by all nations is a development of the 19th and 20th centuries. Passports were not generally necessary for travel abroad until after 1914. Early British passports were individually printed and signed by the Secretary of State. Between 1772 and 1858 British passports were written in French. A passport system became inevitable in the 19th century following the growth of rail travel. It was first thought that the best thing was to abolish them altogether. However, World War I brought renewed worries over security, and passports and visas were again required, at first for a temporary period. The idea of fixing a photograph to a visiting card, an idea promoted by the French photographer André Disderi (1819-90) in the 1850s, was eventually extended to passports but it was not the usual practice until the First World War

Hi Sarah, Have a look at www.nationalarchivist(.)com/ Debbie Take out the brackets!

Thankyou Christine and Deborah, for making the time to give me that information. Take Care Both. Kind Regards Sarah.XX