1912 Russian Passport

This passport is the original passport used by my great grandmother Barbara Jankowski to immigrate to the US.   Parts of it were duplicated in three different languages: Russian, German, and French.  They are also stamped, certified, and signed January 7, 1912 by the Office Director of the Russian Province of Courland, in which the port city of Libau is located.  Excluded is the front and back covers, which were plain black.  This original document was passed on to me by my cousin, Connie, another family genealogist researching the same tree.  I have only seen a few actual old passports, so I thought it would be a good idea to put this one online for others to see what content it actually holds.

The following pages show the complete passport, except for pages 17 and 18.  That leaflet page is perforated like page 19 and 20.  These pages are actual tickets given to a border crossing agent along the immigration journey.  Leaflet 17 and 18 was actually used.  Pages 7 through 16 are numbered, but blank pages in the passport book.  Every page in this passport when turned sideways and slightly tilted under a light shows a hidden page imprint.  This imprint says FOREIGN PASSPORT in Russian, also shown on page 1 as the two largest words, with a government seal pattern consisting of seven circles outlined by a floral design between the two words.  This was obviously used as a measure to prevent counterfeiting.