Genealogy Chat

This may be a daft question but in 1910 did a person require a passport in order to go to Cape town, South Africa, from England? My great grandparents spent several years out there before coming home. George

From The National Archives information leaflet: 'Introduction Before the First World War it was rare for someone travelling abroad to apply for a passport. The monarch had, until the seventeenth century, the prerogative right to control the movement of his subjects overseas, and records of applications for and grants of permission to leave the kingdom are to be found among the records of Chancery and the Exchequer. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, passports were issued more frequently, although it was only in 1846 that regulations relating to applications for passports were first formulated. Passports were issued to British-born subjects for a single journey and could be used for any subsequent journey only if countersigned afresh by the ministers or consuls of the countries which the holder intended to visit. Possession of a passport, however, was confined largely to merchants and diplomats, and the vast majority of those travelling overseas had no formal document. Information held in The National Archives on individual passport-holders is scanty; the Office does not hold completed application forms, except for a small sample illustrating the treatment accorded to applications of various types.' Full details here: http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=109 nell

George I hope the following info may be of some use to you. I have tried searching the National Archives for passports for ancestors I knew went to Italy, Sweden, France and Belgium regularly between 1880 and 1912 with no success whatsoever. The information that was available only seemed to give name, date of issue and number of passport. I could find nothing else. I took down a number of names that were possible but all I have to show for a day's work at TNA on Passport Research is a page of names with numbers which may or may not be connected to my family, definitely not one of my better days at TNA and I doubt I shall try again for passports. Other records for TNA are wonderful, but passport research got a thumbs down from me! Janet