I don't believe that there were passports in those days. I guess there were passports, but mostly used by people who intended to return to the U.K., for example, or for those who might want to communicate through an embassy back to their Bank, their family, their business, etc. People who were emigrating generally didn't intend to call on the English government for help in the future. They were happy to be severing their connections to it. And as a practical matter, the passport is needed for entering a country, not leaving one. Although now an airline might check to make you have a passport or visa to make sure they're not stuck with you after they land in a foreign country. Prussia had a rule that you had to get permission to leave a country and that permission involved making sure that you had paid all the money that you owed to others and had completed your mandatory military service. But I have never seen a copy of that kind of emigration permit. -----Original Message----- From: Don Nash [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 7:12 PM To: 'Ray Masrshall'; [email protected] Subject: RE: [IRL-KERRY] blennerville ships and other ports of departure Hi Ray, what about passports? Did these people need permission to leave their home country? Other than during the famine years. Don Nash in Toledo, where we used to make Champion spark plugs. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ray Masrshall Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 6:51 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [IRL-KERRY] blennerville ships and other ports of departure As a general rule, it is pretty rare to find passenger lists in the port of departure in Europe. The official attitude for the steerage passengers was on the order of "good riddance." Ray Marshall Uncertified mechanic in Minneapolis _______________ --------------- Policies of the IRL-Kerry List: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/mailing.html To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message. To subscribe to the Digest version of the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'subscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message. To visit the County Kerry Research and Resources Page go to: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/ Share your stuff! If you transcribed research data, share it with the Irish genealogy community. Contribute it to the Kerry website to reach a wide audience. Contact Ann Hammer, data maintenance. Her contact info is at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/ contrib.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message