Find Ancestors

On Wednesday 4th June, ancestry.com.au will be launching the collection of free settlers passenger lists.

You'll be able to search the 8.9 million names of passengers and crew who arrived in NSW as free settlers between 1826 and 1922.

For millions of free settlers, Australia was a country of hope and promise, a chance to escape class systems, poverty and overcrowding. Although Australia is often thought of as being founded by convicts, the vast majority of the early population made its way of its own free will to join convict relatives, to own homes and land for the first time or find gold.

This week, more than 150 years on, their stories will be available online for the first time, giving their descendants the chance to trace their journeys.





Deb:)

Thanks, Deb, I shall be having a look.

Hi Deb,

Thats good news Deb as all my family branches came to Australia,

I have no convicts,

Some came as assisted passangers and I have been able to find them but the Free imigrating family's have been imposible to find on shipping records.

......................Lois

I know what you mean Lois. I've got a branch of free settlers that up till now have been impossible to find.

Fingers crossed!



Deb:)

Thanks for that info Deb..

It may help with some family that have been elusive for me and havent been able to find on passenger records as of yet...

I also have a convict in the family aswell.. Naughty naughty... :)

Thanks for the info Deb, it is so frustrating to know the year of arrival in the Colony and find no records.I have been looking for almost 20 years.

Will we need a special subcrition to Ancestry as we do for the electoral rolls???

I love my 9 convicts they are so easy to research.
Can't wait for tomorrow.

Narelle in wet Sydney

Hi all

Don't forget that this appears to be only for New South Wales which leaves the other 5 States out of it.

However, as the record dates extend out to 1922 it will be a great help.

David
Adelaide
South Australia

I'm hoping this will help me find my Great Grandfather who emigrated there sometime in the late 1800s. Mind you with a name like John Jones it could be I'll be looking at hundreds of possibles!

Hi Narelle,

I'm hoping ancestry will give us sub members a 2 week free trial as they did when they released the electrol rolls last year.

Here's hoping!



Deb:)

Rita,

Sorry not an expert on this but.......since you have no reply... this is my experience

Please members correct me if I am wrong here

there are 3 types of passage

1. Free,

2. Assisted

3. Convict

Free - they paid for their own ticket -

as they settled in the colony they became free settlers or pioneers

Convict passage - well - that doesn't take much explaining - once you have a record allway have a record.

And

Assisted passage - where part or all there fare was paid for.

Not sure on this but with my rellies -

Husbands came out first - Free passage (cant find their shipping records)

Then paid for the family to follow they were-

Assisted passage - and I have found them on shipping records.


And how Lucky am I, the Ancestors I am interested in came to NSW..

.............Lois

Hi Linda,

I'm sulking here because I have a UK sub and can't view without credits.

I think I'll do a sneaky and sign up for 2 week free trial then cancel before it runs out.



Deb:)

Hi Linda,

Ohhhhh, you're a darling.

Could you see if you can find Joseph Sharp b1875 travelling after 1895 from Liverpool to Syney or southern ports. He eventually settled in Bega, NSW south coast.

His occupation at the time was engineer and he was unmarried.




Deb:)

This sounds very interesting, because the records will contain more information than the ones already online on the NSW State Records site.

However, this database doesn't include convict records (although other Ancestry databases do).

http://news.theage.com.au/world/aussies-free-settler-records-go-digital-20080604-2li4.html

Hi Linda are you able to search because I tried and had to pay to see any entries.
If you can search would you please be kind enough to look to see if you can see the Colledge family
William Samuel his wife Sarah looks like their son may have been born aboard the HMS John Oldham so I do not know if that is one of the ships that travelled out to Austraila about the 1850s. May also be daughter jane with them not sure when she was born. Regards and best wishes Irene

It's showing in ancestry.co.uk but you cant view the full details as it's asking me to upgrade (I'm a paid subscriber to UK only)

Why put it in UK site when you can't view it?

Off to sulk..!

Hi Linda,

Thanks so much for the look-up. The Sharp arriving in Sydney 18-1-1897 might actually be my Joseph. He was present at his brother's marriage in Liverpool, Aug 1895 and he married in Bega, NSW in 1898.

Although I have his birth and death and an account of his life in between, I don't have his passage. It's frustrating.

I often wonder how hard it must have been for him to make such a huge journey alone, heading to a country where he didn't know a soul.

God love him!



Deb:)



P.S. T in Middlesex............I too had a sulk when I couldn't view.................lol

Sorry Chris posted a thread to Linda on your thread by mistake. Regards Irene

Hi Linda,

Looks like you've been roped into doing these look-ups.....................lol

You're such a darling!




Deb:)

I have a seemingly silly question but just thought i'd check..
Do you have to have a world sub on ancestry to view these records??

You can view the basic records with just an ordinary UK sub to see if any of your names are there.

However, to view the full record you need either the UK Heritage sub (obtainable through ancestry.com.au) or the World sub.

The same applies to all the specifically Australian databases, like the electoral rolls and Sands directories.