Question about passports

Over 25 million Italians have emigrated between 1861 and 1960 with a migration boom between 1871 and 1915 when over 13,5 million emigrants left the country for European and overseas destinations.
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marymary52
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Question about passports

Post by marymary52 »

I have grandparents and grandparents that came from Italy. Did they need a passport. and how do I find info on there passports?.
carubia
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Re: Question about passports

Post by carubia »

What year(s) did they leave Italy? Where did they go?
marymary52
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Re: Question about passports

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My grandmother Marianna Iovine arrived oct 2 1899 Naples from Castlegarden.org I can't find the manifest page. I want to see if she came over with anyone or by her self. She was only 15-16 years old.
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Re: Question about passports

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The Manifest page is #83338 and her records do not indicate a relative or chaperone. If you go thru the http://www.italianimmigrants.org you can views her immigration arrival information. Peter
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erudita74
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Re: Question about passports

Post by erudita74 »

marymary52 wrote:I have grandparents and grandparents that came from Italy. Did they need a passport. and how do I find info on there passports?.

If your ancestors emigrated from Italy in 1899, and came to the U.S. in that year, they needed a passport to exit Italy but did not need a passport to enter the U.S. at that time-

Here's info that I and Blissis (another poster) previously put on this forum concerning passports-

My info is from Trafford Cole's book on Italian Genealogical Records.:

from the year 1869, and the unification of Italy, any Italian citizen who wanted to travel outside of Italy had to be issued a passport. They could not leave their country without one, although the country to which they were traveling did not necessarily require them to have a passport to enter that new country. So the U.S. did not require an Italian passport to enter this country in the early 1900s, but Italy required its citizens to have a passport in order to leave there. For one thing, the Italian government wanted to make sure that men who were eligible for their draft did not leave the country before they had served in the military there. Another thing was that the Italian government wanted to insure that any of its citizens guilty of a crime did not leave the country.

Now, in order for an Italian citizen to be issued an Italian passport in their country, they had to go to their closest police headquarters with their birth certificates. There the officials would check the names on the certificates. So it was the Italian police who issued the passports. Some Italian citizens requested a passport but never left Italy. Some made multiple trips abroad using only 1 passport. Some actually made two or three requests for a passport before finally setting sail. The records kept by the questura (in the archives of the headquarters of the internal police in each province) are not available to the public.

Every passport request, however, also had to be approved by the ministero degli interni (minister of internal affairs) in Rome. So a list of passport requests and approvals is kept by this ministero in Rome. The problem is that the passports are indexed by town or province for each year, so you need not only the town name but also the year the passport was issued (which may not be the same year your ancestor arrived in the United States). Also these indices do not even contain the actual date of departure from Italy of your ancestor, as he may have requested his passport months before he actually left there. According to Trafford Cole, in his book about researching Italian records, this index contains very little info of actual worth (p.161).

Erudita



Postby BlissIs » 28 Mar 2014, 01:02
John Philip Colletta answered my query in his book: Finding Italian Roots: The Complete Guide for Americans. I quote pages 77-78:
Prior to 1869 permits to emigrate were issued by regional heads of state, such as the King of the Two Sicilies in Naples or the Duke of Tuscany, through a governmental agency. Since the unification of Italy, passport applications have been made at the local questura (police station). Registri dell'Emigrazione e Passporti (Registers of Emigration and Passports) from about 1800 through World War I, are preserved in archivi di stato, with those dated 1869 and later being among the records of the Polizia (Police) or Prefettura (Prefect). Passport records since World War I, however, are still in the custody of the questura where the application was made. Emigration and passport records usually state the name of each emigrant, comune of birth, age or birth date, date when applying to emigrate or date when emigration will be permitted, and the port of departure and destination. Unfortunately, however, in many places, emigration and passport records have not been preserved, either in the archivio di stato or at the questura.
A seperate set of records dealing with emigration matters has been kept since 1869 by the Ministero dell'Interno (Minsitry of the Interior) in Rome, where they are maintained today--closed to public inspection. However, requests for genealogical information from these records may be granted if the requestor makes clear his or her relationship to the emigrant and gives a reason for the information that the ministry considers satisfactory.
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Re: Question about passports

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I believe that most newbie inquirers of Italian genealogy should be encouraged to obtain and read the Italian Genealogical Records by Trafford R. Cole to familiarize themselves with not only genealogy but the History of Italy as you so cleverly became aware of its assist in genealogy research. Peter
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marymary52
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Re: Question about passports

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Thank you everyone, How would I find my grandmother Maianna Iovine.,passport ( If she did have one)
marymary52
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Re: Question about passports

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If she had a Italian passport where would I look for it?
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Re: Question about passports

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This has already been answered above by another accomplished volunteer. If you still have difficulty on how to proceed then write us back. Peter
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marymary52
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Re: Question about passports

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Gee!
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dmt1955
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Re: Question about passports

Post by dmt1955 »

marymary

I am sorry, but I do not know the answer to your question about where to search to find Marianna's Italy-issued passport. OR if there are any Italian online databases with that info. I have never seen a reference to this in my searches.

I was curious, however, as I have Iovene surname in my ancestry. So I did a quick search and did locate the details for her passage, including the relatives in the US:
http://castlegarden.org/quick_search_de ... id=9372528

i hope this is useful.
donna
Locations of interest: Ariano Irpino, Altavilla Irpina, Montaguto, Volturrara Irpina, Paternopoli, San Mango Sul Calore
https://ArianoIrpinoGenealogy.weebly.com/
https://paternopoligenealogy.weebly.com/
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