What was he doing at Le Havre???

[nrepole]

Hi all

A question. My relative, Antonio Repole made the trip to New York from the port of Le Havre, France in April, 1914. He was 18 years old at the time. Now, he came from a small town, Rapone, in Basilicata region (southern Italy). So the natural port to emigrate from was Naples. As he did not perform any military service in Italy (as records suggest), what could he have been doing in France. Maybe, the port of Naples was closed at the time as it was just before the start of WW1? I am puzzled...

Any help or suggestions would be great.
Nick

[liviomoreno]

Many Italians embarked from LeHavre because the French government did not request a valid passport. An interesting article, in Italian, can be found here: http://www.valdaveto.net/documento_708.html

[nrepole]

Thank you Livio. Interesting article. So I guess he hopped on a train and made his way to France then. He must have been very desperate to get out of his town, Rapone.