Canton Bern (BE)

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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


This page is maintained by Christof Schick. / Last updated 24 April 2014(wws).
Please forward any comments and/or additions to this webpage to the WebMasterCH.