Ottoman Empire Genealogy

Country Information
The Ottoman Empire (Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye,[2] Modern Turkish: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti), was an empire that lasted from 1299 to 1923. It was succeeded by the Republic of Turkey in 1923. At the height of its power (16th–17th century), it controlled much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

History
Beginning with a small principality on the Byzantine frontier around the year 1300, the Ottomans managed to build a vast empire by the mid-sixteenth century. The empire spanned the area between the Crimea in the north to Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula in the south, and between the Persian Gulf in the east to central Europe and North Africa in the west.

"Tezkire-i Osmaniye" Personal Identification Documents
These identification documents were issued starting in 1863 and were written in Ottoman Turkish. An example and translation of a personal identification document is found here.