Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Check Ahead!

While doing more research for ML, I found another wealth of information that the other members of her family hadn't found yet: the FULL passport application of an uncle. Sure, they had the first page, but they were missing 4 additional pages of information! How could this be?

Ancestry only indexes the first page of a passport application. This means to find the other pages, you have to use the "next page" buttons within the document viewer. This gave some incredible details including a photograph of the family.


One of the most interesting bits of information attached to the application was a translated letter from Poland describing the situation after World War I. Homes destroyed, family missing, a relative captured by Russians, etc. All this provides a backdrop to why this relative needed to go back to Poland, sell his things, and bring his mother-in-law back to America.

So, when viewing records, don't forget to check the next page! You never know what else might be attached to that first page.

1 comment:

  1. On my behalf :-) I found this passport application at least ten years ago....were the other pages there? I'm not sure, but have learned long ago to check continuing pages. Thanks, Sean, for finding the rest of the pages and sharing!

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