Ancestors' Travels: Passports and Archives to Explore

Discover how to find your traveling ancestors thanks to passports, visas, and passenger lists available in the archives.

Whether it was for a simple trip within the canton, for work, or to emigrate abroad, our ancestors often traveled more than we imagine. However, unlike today, every movement was strictly regulated: passports, visas, passenger lists... as many documents that have become precious genealogical sources.

Let's explore together how to use these archives to trace your ancestors' travels.

Passports: A Sesame for Traveling Since the 18th Century

Internal Passports: Traveling in France

Since 10 Vendémiaire Year IV (October 1, 1795), no one could leave their canton without passport. These documents, issued by mayors or prefects, were mandatory for traveling within the country.

• 💰 Cost: 2 francs

• ⏳ Validity: 1 year, renewable

• 🗑️ Suppression: After 1860, with the rise of railways

  
  

Passports for Foreign Travel: Crossing Borders

To leave the national territory, one had to obtain a passport issued by the prefect.

These rules gradually relaxed:

• As of 1843, no passport control at the Belgian border

• Between 1860 and 1870, some countries like England, Belgium, Spain, or even the United States no longer required passports

  
  

🚨  Did you know? Until the First World War, it was possible to travel almost all over Europe (except Russia and Turkey) without a passport, just with an entry or residence declaration.

What Do Passport Registers Contain?

These archives are true treasures for genealogists. You can find there:

• The  ancestor's  home

• His/her  destination

• His/her  profession

• His/her  family composition

  
  

Some departments have digitized these registers, such as:

• The  Hautes-Pyrénées

• The  Gironde

• The  Haute-Saône

• The archives of Montpellier

  
  

📝 Note: the site  Chapelle Rablais offers a collection of passports for the interior of fairground workers, seasonal workers, and migrants in Brie in the 19th century.

Passenger Registers Online

In addition to passports, passenger lists are an essential source for tracking your ancestors' migrations.

Several sites offer these data:

• Visas in Bordelais : emigration from Bordeaux in the 19th century

• Passengers of the Transatlantic Crossings : resources provided by the archives of Manche

• Ellis Island : to find immigrants to the United States and Canada.

• The Ships List : many passenger lists to the world.

• Archives of the East India Companies : find on the Mémoires de Hommes site the lists of crews and passengers of the East India Company (archives kept in Lorient).

• Migrations.fr : the site of immigrants to New France between the 17th and 19th centuries.

• French Lines : the history and heritage of the French merchant marine, its companies, and its ports.

Explore Your Family's Migratory History with Geneafinder

Your ancestors' travels and movements tell an essential part of their story.

Thanks to the  Geneafinder tools, you can:

• Create or import your tree for free

• Add your finds from the archives

• Share your findings with your relatives

  
  

🤝  Join Geneafinder for free and trace your traveling ancestors.