On a whim I started searching ancestry.com’s collection of U.S. passport applications for some of my more recent surnames. I got a few hits and was surprised to learn that…
There is a copy of the passport photo that was scanned with the application:
William Ford Gibbons (1864-1929)
That the applications include a physical description of the applicant:
That a wife could be added to her husband’s passport with a simple signed letter and a photo:
William Ford Gibbons married Anna Laurence Gibbons later in life. He remained single and lived with his mother at least up until the 1920 census, when he was 56 years old. His mother died in 1922 and he married Anna (then 32 years old) in 1924. I think that’s what the text under her picture indicates – “married in Tampa… 10th 1924”.
Family stories indicate that William was a favored uncle who doted on his nieces and nephews. He supposedly traveled a lot and brought exotic gifts back to his extended family. Then he married Anna (who I believe was previously widowed) and when William died his entire fortune was left to his wife of 5 years. Needless to say, some of those nieces and nephews were upset.
Out Here Studying Stones 