Italy Passport Records
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. 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.
Passport Records (Passaporti)
These records contain useful lineage linking information on relationships and may contain birth and marriage information. They can frequently link between place of origin and place of emigration. Passports were authorized by provincial officials (registri delle vidimazioni dei passaporti per la provincia) and exist from the 1800s to present, with some records beginning earlier.
These records generally contain the name of the person applying for a passport or migration permit, and may also include parent's names, places of residence or origin, dates of migration, destinations, relationships, and vital information such as birth date, marriage date, names of children, etc.
Records can be found at state archives and some notarial offices and can generally be accessed by request with an appointment. The actual coverage of the population cannot be calculated.