“Passport
to America”
by Cav. Anthony Lascio
We are all aware
that our Italian forebearers had to leave their Italian homeland in order to
resettle in the American land of opportunity.
But what most of us don’t know is the process which was required in
order to actually relocate.
When a person
experiences the first bite of the genealogy bug, one of their initial thoughts
is to chase down the emigrating ancestor’s passport. This inclination is certainly valid, especially if some of
the necessary basic information to identify the origin of the ancestor is
unknown. Surely, a genealogist
would ponder, a passport would name the home town of grandpa or great grandma.
While this logical approach is commendable, the results of such a
search may not be desirable.
Of the various
types of Italian record sources, the Italian passport may be one of, in not
the, most difficult document to locate.
Prior to the
reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, Italy did not see the need for it’s citizens to have authorization to either move
about the country or to leave it altogether.
But the highly administrative oriented Napoleon instituted a system
which required “papers” in order for a citizen to relocate.
After his demise in 1815, this system was scrapped for the most part.
The early Napoleonic “travel permits” can be located in the various
state/provincial archives, if they exist.
When Italy became
a unified nation after 1869, the passport (passaporto) as we know it today,
became a requirement for all Italians who desired to resettle elsewhere.
But here is the hitch. The
American authorities did not require incoming immigrants to carry an entry
document because of it’s “open immigration” policy.
Therefore, many arriving Europeans and primarily Italians, did not
bother to obtain an official passport for their U.S. arrival.
Hence, the term WOP was coined, without papers.
On the other side
of the Atlantic Ocean, including Italy, state governments tried to regulate
the departure of their citizens, particularly young males who the government
viewed as “draft dodgers”. The
responsibility of issuing Italian passports then and now falls under the
jurisdiction of the local questura (police headquarters).
The application records are maintained in the state archive and are not
available for viewing by the public. These
records are accessible via written request to the district attorney (prefettura)
if the requesting party has a legal motivation or need accompanied by an
official stamp (cost unknown).
A second source for
passport records is the minister of internal affairs located in Rome.
He was the final process in the approval chain of command.
If you choose to pursue this process, expect a long delay and possible
rejection or even an ignoring of your request.
If you are fortunate enough to have your request processed, the data of
this passport document will provide only minor genealogical information.
Besides the name of the individual, the remainder of the data will
include a birth date, place of residency and application date.
What you may seek primarily, i.e. the port of emigration and destination
of the ancestor may not even be included. What
you will not find is probably the most sought after information you require,
i.e., the date of departure. The
reason for this missing data is the process itself.
When an Italian citizen applied and when he or she actually left the
country could have been months or even years after the actual emigration request
application.
Experience dictates
that despite all of the preceding, the most valuable document concerning an
ancestor’s emigration is the passport itself.
Many genealogists have located this worthwhile artifact among the
personal possessions of the ancestor or retained by the ancestor’s family.
If and when located, the passport will provide a storehouse of
information including the ancestor’s parents names, birth date, town of
residence, occupation, a complete physical description and of course the date of
departure, the port of Italian departure and American arrival, ship name and
destination in America. More recent
passports even include the ancestor’s photo.
Most Italian
genealogists are aware of the three principal ports of ancestral departure in
Italy; Palermo if Sicilian; Genoa, if from the Northern half of the peninsula;
or Napoli, if from the Southern half of the boot. A few who resided in the Northeast corner of the country
sailed from Trieste, adjacent to the former Yugoslavia.
One question many
researchers wish to know is whether there are port departure records from these
points of embarkation. Generally
and unfortunately, the answer is usually “no”. Although there are a few ship
lists and minor departure information, no passenger lists have survived.
They were maintained by the individual steamship lines, but World Wars,
climactic conditions and carelessness have resulted in their loss or
destruction. Thus, a potentially
very valuable resource is gone forever.
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