Canton Bern (BE) |
 |
Passport Register |
|
Passports issued in Canton Berne (e.g. for emigration) have been registered from 1838 until 1913; information on passports issued before 1887 may be obtained at the Canton Berne State Archives; unfortunately mail/phone queries are not answered, and opening hours for genealogical research are rather restricted (alternatively the register is available on CD: 1838-1847 / 1847-1855 / 1855-1859 / 1859-1864 / 1864-1870 / 1870-1877 / 1877-1887). There are two sources: a "passport register", just giving last name, given name, and passport number; apart from a few missing years there are also more detailed documents, giving information like hometown, description, occupation, purpose and length of journey, ...
| Register (1) shelf mark |
first year last year |
Document folder (2) shelf mark |
first number last number |
first number / date last number / date |
||
| 1 and 2 St.A.B. XIIIa 54 |
1838 1847 |
1 St.A.B. XIIIa 52 |
0001 4460 |
01 Apr 1838 31 Jul 1843 |
||
| 2 St.A.B. XIIIa 53 |
0001 4245 |
02 Aug 1843 30 Jun 1847 |
||||
| 3 and 4 St.A.B. XIIIa 57 |
1847 1855 |
3 St.A.B. XIIIa 55 |
0001 4460 |
01 Jul 1847 29 Jun 1852 |
||
| 4 St.A.B. XIIIa 56 |
0001 7149 |
01 Jul 1852 26 Oct 1855 |
||||
| 5 St.A.B. XIIIa 59 |
1855 1859 |
lost (3) | ||||
| 6 St.A.B. XIIIa 61 |
1859 1863 (4) |
6 St.A.B. XIIIa 60 |
0001 7256 |
15 May 1859 15 Feb 1864 |
||
| 7 St.A.B. XIIIa 63 |
1864 1869 (5) |
7 St.A.B. XIIIa 62 |
0001 7218 |
15 Feb 1864 24 Jan 1870 |
||
| 8 St.A.B. XIIIa 65 |
1870 1877 |
8 St.A.B. XIIIa 64 |
0001 8666 |
25 Jan 1870 07 May 1877 |
||
| 9 St.A.B. XIIIa 67 |
1877 1887 (6) |
9 St.A.B. XIIIa 66 |
0001 8666 |
07 May 1877 17 Mar 1887 (7) |
Comments :
(1) Listed in the Register are only : surname, given name, passport number.
(2) Listed in the Document Folder are : passport number, date (dd mm yy), surname and given name, home town (place of citizenship) and place of residence, occupation, description incl. age, height, colour of hair, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, face and any distinct marks, destination, purpose of travel, accompanying persons, duration of journey, legitimation.
(3) Unfortunately the Document Folder got lost; only the Register is still available, and covers dates from 26 Oct 1855 until 14 May 1859.
(4) The Register lists 1863 for the last entry, but the Document Folder contains information until early 1864.
(5) The Register lists 1869 for the last entry, but the Document Folder contains information until early 1870.
(6) The Register lists data until 1887 (with additional data until 1913, but no data after 1887 are contained in the corresponding Document Folder : it is unknown whether (and where) these records still exist).
(7) In this case the register does not cover the entire document folder : whilst only 49 passports for the years 1884-1886 are listed in the register, there are actually 1017 passports contained in the document folder. Consequently one should not rely on the register : if a person is not listed there, passport data might still be available !
The state archive is considering an electronic version of the passport register which would allow searches for surnames, home town, and other parameters. When this will be available is presently (Nov 1999) not known.
Canton Jura : As canton Jura belonged to Bern until 1978, passports for this region will have been issued by Bern authorities during the above time range.
There will be no records for passports of citizens from other cantons, however !
For information on passport registers of other cantons see The Swiss Connection (Vol. 4, Nr. 1, Fall 1995) or contact the editor Maralyn Wellauer.
For Canton Geneva documents exist for 1794-1942, and are indexed 1815-1910 (information by courtesy of Maralyn Wellauer).
Back to Canton Berne / Church records of Canton Bern / Mannrechtsrodel (1694-1754) / Men of Bern (1798 census)
Kantonsauswahl | Canton selection | selection des Cantons | selezione del Cantoni
Sources on emigration / Quellen zur Auswanderung / Sources sur l'émigration