Australia Immigration Records
Australian Ancestry Records
Australia immigration records are best researched online at several ancestry websites and locations. One of the best for later periods of immigration is the National Archives of Australia website. The Australian National Archives can be found at naa.gov.au, where you can find information on migration, citizenship and travel to Australia over the generations.
The files give information on people who migrated to the island and became Australians in the 19th and 20th century, as well as information about people who left Australia and later returned.
Included in these Australian immigration records on travelers to the island nation are the person’s nationality, date of brith, place of birth, profession, background education, family history or details of traveling family members and even a photograph, if you’re lucky.
Australian Immigration Records
Australian officials at the time kept immigration applications, passenger records, case files, non-citizen registration, passport records, visas, entry documents, exit documents, naturalisation and citizenship records, migrant accomodation records and migrant select documents. While the NAA is best for immigrants coming to Australia after 1901, you’ll find less detailed information on travel to Australia before the 20th century.
That’s because the various Australian colonies were responsible for their own immigration records before 1901, when it was standardized. That make the records of the earlier periods of migration somewhat less reliable and systematic.
Because Australia became a Commonwealth in 1901, but maintained close British ties through the end of World War II and beyond, many of the records before that period unfortunately deal with non-British immigrants, so much of the information before 1945 will be best for Japanese, Chinese and Syrians. British-assisted immigrants are likely to appear in the rolls, though, so bounty immigrants and assisted immigrants should appear.
After World War II, you should be able to find passage records for a large number of people moving from the British Isles and Europe to Australia.
Ancestry research often requires patience and perseverance. You’re going to find a lot of partial records and tidbits of information you’ll have to piece together. Some might get frustrated by this fact, but those searching through Australia’s immigration records will probably need to search through many genealogy sources to get a clear picture of their Australian family tree.
Genealogy Links
Genealogylinks.net contains links to a number of Australian genealogy sites, including records of Australian women’s migration to the isle, files for Sydney and New South Wales from the period 1861 to 1933 and early land grants from 1788 to 1809. Many of the immigration websites linked to include specific ports in the British Isles which sent people to Australia.
National Library of Australia
Another good free online resource for Australian immigration records is the National Library of Australia at nla.gov.au. You can find shipping information coming to Sydney & Newscastle from 1844 to 1859, as well as Sydney from 1860 to 1896. There are also archives for Moreton Bay fro 1849 to 1859 and Port Phillip from 1839 to 1851.
You’ll find Queensland “assisted immigration” from 1848 to 1912, unassisted immigration to Victoria from 1852 to 1923, incomplete records of precolonization passenger lists to South Australia before 1850, unassisted passenger and crew lists for New South Wales from 1854 to 1900 and a separate resource for New South Wales a few years before, 1844 to 1855.
People performing Australia immigration records searches can also find convict transportation registers from 1787 to 1867, along with numerous other files for Irish convicts, Victoria convict records and guides to researching your convict ancestors. Along with shipping records, you’ll find information on births, marriages, deaths, cemetaries, indigenous families and military service records.
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This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Genealogical Records. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.