Departure of Italian immigrants from French ports

Departures from France

As we explained when discussing the situation of Italian ports, a large mass of Italian immigrants departed for the Americas from French ports. Let’s remember the reasons:

• Proximity did not always mean accessibility; Italian immigrants from some regions faced significant difficulties reaching Genoa.
• Some shipping companies were owned by French capital, among others, and generally operated illegally in Italy.
• An ancestor of ours or a relative might have tried their luck in France due to its proximity and then decided to head to the Americas.
• Italians could have departed from Le Havre, Cherbourg, Nantes, Marseille, Boulogne, and even from Bordeaux.

Movement of Ships from Le Havre and Rouen (including some passenger lists)

With their broad sails, tall masts, and long wooden hulls, the ships of the 19th century were astonishing feats of design, and one of the most exotic commodities in Europe. Loaded with immigrants and raw materials from around the world, the use of these ships peaked in the late 1800s, a period known as the golden age of sailing. Soon, sailing ships were phased out following the advent of steamships. The migratory movement reached new, unprecedented dimensions in the 19th century up until 1930.

Can we imagine the intensity of maritime traffic?

On the website of the Departmental Archives of Seine-Maritime (France), 960,000 digitized images of the Maritime Registration records have been made available. These digitized records include the movement of ships from Le Havre and Rouen and allow the identification of the vessels and the people who sailed the seas in the past.

The time period extends from the 18th century until 1903, constituting a valuable source for the history of maritime activities: trade routes, migratory flows, shipbuilding, and also genealogical information.

The digitized material includes:

• Seafarer’s Registrations, i.e., forms that indicate the marital status of sailors, their naval careers, and their service status [1751-1849].
• Registers of merchant ships that show the history of these vessels: their names, registration, construction, voyages made, and successive decommissionings [1751-1903].
• Records of commercial ships, providing information such as cargo tonnage, crew, and passengers eventually embarked or disembarked [1741-1911].