Australia Emigration and Immigration

Emigration and immigration sources list names and other details about individuals leaving (emigration) or coming into (immigration) Australia. Between 1788 and 1900 over 1,000,000 people immigrated to Australia. Most of them were from the British Isles, but some were from Europe and Asia.

Indexes and lists of immigrants to each state are available in a variety of formats including microfiche, microfilm, book and electronic formats. Some are available on the internet. Local, state and family history libraries may hold material relevant to that state and other areas of Australia. The National Archives hold records of immigration after 1923 when immigration became a Commonwealth Government responsibility. The information on the records and how to obtain them is available at: http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/migration/index.aspx

The following websites are State websites with their immigration records:

New South Wales Index to Assisted Immigrants 1839-96, Moreton Bay, 1848-1859, Port Phillip 1839-1851: http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/assisted_immigrants_1839-96_366.asp

Index to unassisted Immigrants 1842-1851: http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/searchform.aspx?id=43

Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters - primarily New South Wales, unassisted records from the 1850-80s, incomplete: http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/

Queensland
Assisted Immigrants 1848-1884: http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/research/index/immigration.asp

South Australia
Passenger Lists up to 1848: http://www.familyhistorysa.info/

Victoria
Index to Registers of Assisted British Immigrants-indexes assisted immigrants from Britain to Victoria, Australia between 1839 and 1871:http://proarchives.imagineering.com.au/index_search.asp?searchid=24

Index to Unassisted Immigration to Victoria:http://proarchives.imagineering.com.au/index_search.asp?searchid=23

Outward Passengers to Interstate, UK, NZ, and Foreign Ports 1852-1861: http://proarchives.imagineering.com.au/index_search.asp?searchid=42

Prior to 1900 there were four classes of immigrants to Australia:


 * Convicts came to Australia after they were tried and convicted for crimes committed in the British Isles. They were sentenced to Australia for various periods of time, depending on the crime.
 * Bounty immigrants were chosen by Australian colonists to come from the British Isles to Australia.
 * Assisted immigrants came to Australia through the financial assistance of the government, organizations, or wealthy individuals.
 * Paying passengers came to Australia through their own means.

With the exception of paying passengers, immigration records usually contain a great deal of genealogical information. Many records list each individual’s name, age or date of birth, place of birth, trade or occupation, physical description, marital status, and number of children. Passenger lists of paying immigrants usually list only names.

Many eighteenth and nineteenth century immigration sources have been published. Indexes to passenger lists have also been published. In addition, many books have been written about immigrants from various countries and religions who settled in Australia. For more information about immigrants from other countries, see the "Minorities" section of this outline. The National Archives of Ireland has a searchable index database on the Internet for transportation records of Irish convicts sent to Australia between 1788 and 1868. That national archives can be accessed at the following site:

The National Archives of Ireland

 * http://www.nationalarchives.ie/

Over 38,000 names are indexed on the Ireland - Australia Transportation website as being exiled.

Australia also kept records of individuals leaving the country as emigrants. These outward-bound records include the names of passenger and crew members and sometimes additional information such as an individual’s age, marital status, occupation, and nationality.

Between 1848 and 1850 over 4,000 adolescent female orphans emigrated from Irish workhouses to Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide on the other side of the world. Their emigration has become known as the ‘Earl Grey scheme’ after its principal architect, Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies in Lord John Russell’s Whig government at the time of the Great Irish Famine. The following website lists 400 of orphans that are inscribed on the memorial:


 * http://irishfaminememorial.org/orphans/names_monument.htm

The following book gives information about immigration sources and indexes for Australia:

Vine Hall, Nick. Tracing Your Family History in Australia: a guide(Family History Library Call Number 994 D23v.)

There are also several source books about how to find emigration and immigration records. These books are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

AUSTRALIA, [STATE] - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION- HANDBOOKS, MANUALS, ETC.

Emigration and immigration records, such as the ones previously described, are deposited in Australian national archives, state archives, and other local repositories and archives. For further information, see the "Archives and Libraries" section of this outline. To find these records at the Family History Library, look in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog for a lengthy listing of sources under:

AUSTRALIA - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

AUSTRALIA, [STATE] - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

AUSTRALIA, [STATE], [TOWN] - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

Indexes of emigration and immigration records are listed in the Family History Library Catalog under:

AUSTRALIA - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION - INDEXES

AUSTRALIA, [STATE]- EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION - INDEXES

AUSTRALIA, [STATE], [TOWN] - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION - INDEXES