Government records are maintained. During the debate over Obama’s natural born citzenship, someone found the Certificate of Naturalization from 1843 for William Arthur, the father of President Chester A. Arthur.
The relevance of the document is that President Arthur was born with dual British-U.S. citizenship since his father did not naturalize as a U.S. Citizen until Chester was 14 years old.
“Government records are maintained”
Some are, some aren’t.
Birth certificates are maintained — at great burden, trouble and expense due to the numbers — because they are needed long-term.
Your application for your first US Passport? No.
The fact that you got a US Passport is probably recorded.
But the application package you sent in to apply for a US Passport?
No.
The actual first passport you had from 42 years ago is not preserved.
The fact that some private family kept a document in their personal records does not mean that the kind of records you are talking about are retained.
Normally, document retention policies are for FIVE (5) years — not 42 years.