Italy Passport Records

Passports
In 1869, the Italian government began requiring people to obtain passports to move within Italy. However, the United States and many other countries did not require passports, so many Italians left Italy without an official passport.

The Italian government used passports to make sure young Italian men did not emigrate to avoid the military draft. Consequently, police were responsible for passports. Passports are still issued today by the questura (head of the internal police) in each province. Although you may write to request passport information, the archives where these records are kept are not open to the public. You will generally find passports among the personal papers of the emigrant’s family in his or her destination country.

Because passport records can be hard to find and access, you may want to check with the anagrafe (registrar’s office) in each comune. This office keeps records of residency changes and emigration along with dates and probable destinations.

Some passport applications have survived the years and are currently being digitizied and indexed by the BYU Immigrant Ancestors Project. Although it is an ongoing project, you may do a name search on the information indexed to this date.

Contents: Names of passengers holding passport or migration permits and the names of their parents, places of residence or origin, dates of migration, destinations, relationships with other passengers or party members, and vital information such as birth dates, marriage dates, children, etc.

Passport Records (passaporti)
Research use: Contain useful lineage linking information, relationships; may contain birth and marriage information. Can frequently link between place of origin and place of emigration.

Record type: Records of passports authorized on a provincial basis (registri delle vidimazioni dei passaporti per la provincia)

Time period: 1800's to present (a few earlier)

Contents: Names of passengers holding passport or migration permits and the names of their parents, places of residence or origin, dates of migration, destinations, relationships with other passengers or party members, and vital information such as birth dates, marriage dates, children, etc.

Location: Notarial offices / state archives.

Population coverage: 10 to 30% where records exist. The actual coverage of the population cannot be calculated. Reliability: Good.

Accessibility: These are usually housed at the state archives and are accessible to academics and serious researchers by request.