The Questura in Italy: passport applications 19th and 20th centuries

Records of passport applications by Italian immigrants

For the emigration was legal, Italy required that its citizens carry with a passport. In spite that the original passports remain in power of individuals or families departing from Italy, still it’s possible to access, in some cases, to the lists of given passports or any document related with the application of those passports.

La Questura is the General Headquarter of the Internal Police which controls every passport in every Italian province. Dossiers proceeding from the Questura have documents produced in relation to those passports. Said documents have information about persons applying for a passport and for all of those who come along with them.

The Questura italiana is authorized to destroy all documentation more than 10 years old. Nevertheless, in some State Records it’s possible to find some remain of those documents. It happens in the Archivio di Stato di Napoli and in the Archivio di Stato di Torino.

Passport applications 19th and 20th centuries

Those documents have information about the person applying for the passport and those who go with him or her. For the issue of the passport, valid for 3 years, was necessary the nulla osta, issued by the Commune’s Chief, in which are recorded the anagrafic data, particular signs, profession and travel’s port of destination. Also was necessary a Police Report.

• “Nulla Osta” (without opposition) is a certificate where is detailed that the person doesn’t have any impediment to travel (no penal records, full of age, he accomplished with military obligations).
• “Anagrafico” ; this is a term of common use in Italian genealogy and it refers to the Anagrafe, an office of the Italian Demographic Services which conserves a records of people living in their communes, their changes of address, civil status, professions, etc.

State of Torino Archive

The Project “Ancestors-Immigrants” is working about the location, identification and acquisition of digitized copies of these documents on the Italian Civil Records. On the PAI website we can consult a list of passports of Questura di Torino and, in case some information would be interesting for us, the site offers a small formulary to be filled with our personal data. In this way, we’ll deliver an application directly to the Italian Archive, to obtain the copy of that document.

Torino Passport Request 1903-1905

These are passport applications filed with the Questura of Torino, which are kept in the “Sezioni Riunite” section of the Torino State Archive. The collection is organized in bundles called ‘mazzi’, each of which is assigned a call number from 232 to 266. Each ‘mazzo’ contains about 500 passport applications that were filed with the applicant’s documentation required to obtain the passport. Due to the great number of emigrants and the different locations in which the documents were issued, their format and content may vary. In each request the name of the individual will typically be written in blue pencil. These “mazzi” cover the years 1903-1905.

To access the PAI website, go to Torino Passport Request 1903-1905

That database has information of many southern Italians, who applied for their passports in Torino because they were travelling to France to reside on there or to travel in another ship from France (Le Havre, Nantes) to USA.

State of Napoli Archive

On the State of Napoli Archive are conserved dossiers with applications for passports (1888 -1901) stored in the Section Questura del Archivio di Stato di Napoli. These dossiers are organized in 436 files, with an average of 40 applications each. In every dossier are contained all the documents related with the passport application.