Posted 11 years ago
Militarist
(288 items)
Anyone here collect old passports? Over the years I have found a few, the oldest of which is a Russian one from 1891 issued to a family of seven, husband, wife and five children for a trip to Germany. This passport was issued to a whole family for the purpose of a specific trip. Three languages are used, Russian for the issuer. German for the destination and French which was the international language of the day. The family must have stayed in Germany as there is no indication that they returned to Russia. The family may have been Ukrainian since there is a German consulate stamp from Kiev. Since the passport was in an antique mall in Appleton, Wisconsin I would guess that the family did not stay in Germany very long.
His name was Michael Czudnochowski. You can note the changes in name along the way from the Ukraine to German and French forms as well. The translators in each of those languages signed at the bottom of each page. The spelling of the surname would have been set in place by an official in New York when he arrived there with his wife and the five children. But even in the US the name changed again on occasions to "Cudnochofski" in the case of one of the children Minnie Cudnochofski.
Wilhelmina Czudnochowski became Minnie Cudnochofski. When she married she became Minnie Beisel, I think. There was a son born in the US. His name became Emil Cudnohufsky. He was born in Pound, Marinette, Wisconsin on 16 April 1892. So their route to the US was quite direct. The third photo is the so-called "TALON" ( page in foreign Russian passport with 2 places for stamp-permission: one for emigration (to go abroad) from Russia -left and another -for return from emigration -right). It was stamped in Kiev on May 4 1891.
They were not coming back!
Thanks AR and Vetraio, there is a good link in the learn more about documents section on this site. Vetraio your research abilities are very impressive!!
I'm still working on the town Michael C. aka Sidney was born. It is a district west of Kiev called Zhytomyr.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhytomyr
If I see Russian it pricks my attention Militarist.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
It's a Wisconsin item, too.