My Grandfather's 1920 Czechoslovakian passport (above) and identity card for travel inside the country (left). The passport, issued by the newly formed Republic of Czechoslovakia to Paktorovič Salamon on 20 July 1920, is readable in three different languages, Czech, French, and German. The revenue ("kolek") stamp affixed at the top of the cover side is a typical Czechoslovakian three crown ("3 koruny") government issue of the time. Hungarian, needless to say, is no longer the official language of the Subcarpathian region, but the franking stamps all carry Cyrillic text in the outer circumference, a concession to the overwhelming ethnic Rus' presence in the district then called Podkarpatské Rusi. In addition to generally permitting travel through Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, and America (ne - mecké - švýcarské - francouszké - Hollandska - Ameriky), the picture side bears a visa stamp issued by the US Consulate in Prague permitting travel to the United States of America between 16 August 1920, the date of issue, and 15 October 1920. A second visa stamp dated 18 August 1920 gave him permission to go from Czechoslovakia to Belgium through Germany, allowing a maximum of 4 days for travel between 18 and 27 August. A third stamp obtained from the Belgian legation in Prague on 18 August 1920 permitted him to go through Belgium on his way to America without stopping ("Bon pour se rendre en Amérique en transit par Belgique sans arrêt"). In the first column under his name, his profession is described simply as "soukromník" (a private person or small property owner); his date of birth is given as 1887; his current home city as Užhorod (the Czech/Slovak name for Ungvár), in the district of Užhorod; and his birthplace as Ketergény, also in the district of Užhorod. Below that he is described as being tall(er) in stature ("Postava: vyšší"); having dark hair ("Vlasy: tmavé"); symmetric or regular (?) mouth ("Ústa: soum."); oval face ("Oblicej: oválný"); ? beard ("Vousy: ? ); grey eyes ("Oci: sivé"); symmetric or straight (?) nose ("Nos: soum."); bearded chin ("Brada: zarostlá"); and no distinguishing marks ("Zvláštní znameni: ~").
I could write a book about my grandfather (and perhaps will some day). For the moment, I'll just say that he left Ungvár (by that time called by its Czech/Slovak name, Užhorod) for the US in late 1920, as his Czechoslovakian passport and travel "identity" clearly document. Unlike his brothers, there's no Ellis Island record for his immigration, as he seemed to have had enough resources to travel above steerage class. His passport gives his profession as "soukromník" (private person or small property owner), while his identity card reads "Paktorovics Salamon, obchodník," the latter a Czech term denoting, variously, businessman, dealer, trader, merchant, shop owner, etc. Whether he was actually successful at any of these occupations isn't clear to me; in any case, he had a resource not available to his siblings, namely his wife's adoptive father, Elek Grünberger, who really was a successful leather merchant and property owner, and could have afforded to help his son-in-law and his family get a good start in life, perhaps with due consideration of his wartime military service.
Individual copies of the same ID photos used in documents above. These were in my mother's photo album, evidently removed from other documents; three carry franking stamps, and two have my grandfather's signature on them as well.
