Very Interesting Tomás! Susan Vargas Murphy
Sent from my iPhone > On Aug 10, 2017, at 8:32 AM, Tomas Leal <[email protected]> wrote: > > Not all immigrants to the U.S. arrived with official passports. My > grandfather's oldest brother emigrated from Horta in 1885, but his passport > was issued later to verify his Portuguese citizenship and was signed for by > his younger brother, who remained in Flamengos the rest of his life. His > signature is on the back of the passport. I assume that after-the-fact > documents were not rare, as I cannot imagine any official issuing a passport > for someone who had already left the country. It's possible your ancestors > simply came over without papers. > > Apparently, passports were not always required for entry to the U.S. For > example, https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Passports shows > periods when passports were required, and it appears none were required > between 1862 and 1918. To my knowledge, my paternal grandfather from the > Azores is the only one of my four grandparents who had a passport; the other > three did not. > > My Azorean grandfather, who emigrated in 1907, did have a passport before his > departure. Because he was already 18, his passport states he was granted an > exemption from military service. He probably felt the need for a passport > stating his military exemption because he would have been forbidden by law > from leaving the country ahead of fulfilling his military obligation. My > other grandparents did not have the same issue. In those days, many young men > swam or rowed out to the ship rather than leave from the port, so they could > evade the authorities and emigrate without fulfilling military service, which > might have caused further hardship on the family--loss of labor on the farm, > loss of income, and so on. I don't know why or how my grandfather got this > exemption, though I assume some sort of "hardship" was claimed. His father > (my great-grandfather) had already died, leaving the farm to his widow (my > great-grandmother). Three of his brothers (including his oldest one) had > already emigrated and the oldest brother had already sent passage from Horta > to New York and New York to Oakland when my grandfather applied for his > passport. Thus, my grandfather was fully sponsored before he emigrated. > > Tomás Leal > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Azores Genealogy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores.
