Hi Monica, I think you thought that I was Charles...Charles just asked me a question about if I knew how his family traveled from Bern to Hamburg, but I had included his query so I probably confused you... Baselland just means Basel Region. Do you have any more information of the TOWN and CANTON that your grandparents came from?? They were in an area where they could have easily also left Europe from Hamburg...If I may ask, how do you know that they left from Le Havre? Do you have a copy of their original ship manifest? That will prove what port they left from, list names of all family members, ages, etc. My Swiss family had a very unusual situation in their tiny canton of Glarus (less than 20 miles long and only a few miles wide). There was a drought and the very teeny canton of Glarus had a lottery to decide which families were going to go to America...no one wanted to go. First, the canton elders assigned 2 men (one is a gr gr uncle of my shirt tail relative of mine who took the photos that I have) to explore America and find land for their people. They did: New Glarus, Wisconsin. So all of the families came in groups that traveled together, had agents who moved with them, and even took them to the Wisconsin town after they arrived here. Answer to your question: No, none of my relatives needed passports. But, again, it was a highly unusual situation, unlike most other emigrant stories. Some one also asked me about getting information from Switzerland. You MUST find out what CANTON your ancestors came from. That is crucial. Each canton takes care of all information (civil and church) from that canton. A canton is similar to a state. Some Cantons speak Italian, others France and still others German. Nellie, a 68-yr-old root digger _http://www.militaryindexes.com/worldwartwo/_ (http://www.militaryindexes.com/worldwartwo/) WWII index - free for today _http://www.militaryindexes.com/worldwarone/_ (http://www.militaryindexes.com/worldwarone/) WWI - free until 25 Nov 2005