Transport – Locating and Copying Ships Passenger Lists

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Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) holds passenger lists for voyages to and from Victoria up to 1923. Copies of the lists are available on microfiche and microfilm in PROV’s Reading Rooms. The records relate to both assisted immigrants and those who came unassisted or were privately sponsored. When approaching your research it is advisable not to assume that a person was assisted or unassisted, and therefore to search both categories of passenger lists.

Inward Passenger Lists for both assisted and unassisted passengers have been indexed and the indexes are available online. Outward Passenger Lists are in the process of being indexed by PROV volunteers. The online index to Outward Passenger Lists is updated with new entries annually.

PROV, VPRS 947/P0, Unit 86, New Zealand, Alhambra, September 1876, (digitised copy April 2006)

Main Series

VPRS 947 Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (British, Foreign & New Zealand Ports) 1852 – 1923 (available on microfiche)

This series holds the lists of vessels carrying unassisted passengers arriving in Victoria from overseas ports. The lists record information about the ship, details of each passenger and a summary of the passengers carried. The amount of information given for each passenger varied over time. Marital status, age and sex were usually recorded, and nationality and occupation were frequently included.

VPRS 14 Register of Assisted Immigrants from United Kingdom 1839 – 1871 (available on microfiche)

The registers contain the nominal and disposal lists of assisted immigrants arriving in Victoria from the UK. The nominal list usually gives details of each immigrant's name, age, occupation, religion, native place, and whether he or she could read or write. The disposal list details what happened to the assisted immigrant after arrival: for example, the name and address of the migrant's new employer, how long he or she had to work for them, the wages, whether this included rations, and the date the migrant left the depot.

VPRS 948 Outward Passenger Lists 1852 – 1923 (available on microfilm)

These lists were created by the Department of Trade and Customs for the purpose of recording passengers leaving Victorian ports to interstate or overseas destinations.

Online Indexes and Microfilm and Microfiche Copies

These database indexes were compiled from the existing passenger lists by volunteers at PROV:

Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists to Victoria 1852-1923

Index to Assisted British Immigration 1839-1871

Index to Outward Passengers to Interstate, UK and Foreign Ports 1852-1876

The online indexes will lead you to microfiche copies of the Unassisted and Assisted passenger lists or microfilm copies of the Outward passenger lists held at PROV Reading Rooms. The Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists, between the years 1852 – 1899, are also available at libraries and genealogical centres around Australia.

Searching for Passengers

Step 1 Using the Search Window

· Launch the PROV website: www.prov.vic.gov.au and click on Access the Collection.

· Click on the underlined text: PROV's digitised records and online indexes.

· Scroll down to Immigration Database Indexes. Click on the required index. The screen shot below shows the search fields for the Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists database index. Assisted and Outward Passenger lists have similar search fields.

· Enter text to search for in one or more of the fields below, and press Search as in the example below. The example shows the use of an asterisk (*, also known as a wildcard), and narrowing the search by a date range using the year fields. Results for this search are shown below.

· Click on Additional Help at the bottom of the search window screen to see examples of different types of searches.

Step 2 Search Results

· The search results screen displays summary details from each passenger list entry found, as in the example below, and a reference to the microfiche or microfilm copy of the complete lists.

· For the Unassisted lists the Port code (B = British, F = Foreign or N = New Zealand) indicates the port of departure and therefore which series of microfiche to look at.

· If a large number of results is returned eg. 500, you can narrow the search by adding information such as a date range, as shown in the search window example above.

· The age recorded on a list may not have been the passenger's actual age.

· A search result may contain entries of Mr, Mrs, Miss or child. This means that a first name was not recorded when the original list was created.

Step 3 Microfiche and Microfilm Passenger Lists

· When you have located entries for the individuals you want to look at on the passenger list make a note of the following details:

Unassisted Passengers: persons name, port, ship name, fiche number and page number.

Assisted Passengers: persons name, ship name, book number and page number.

Outward Passengers: persons name, ship name, year and month.

· Microfiche are numbered and are located on microfiche stands at PROV Reading Rooms. The Microfilms are numbered sequentially by reel number and are stored in microfilm cabinet drawers at PROV Reading Rooms.

· Once you locate the microfiche or microfilm it can be viewed or printed on a reader printer.

· When viewing the film or fiche, firstly find the name of the ship given on your search result. This name is usually found towards the top of the first page of every passenger list.

· For Assisted passengers find the page with the number from your search results on it. For Unassisted passengers the page number reference from the search result refers to the number of the page in the ship’s book, not the page on the fiche.

Step 4 Printing Your List

PROV, VPRS 947/P0, Unit 86, New Zealand Alhambra, September 1876, (digitised copy April 2006)

Once you have found your passenger list you can print out copies.

· The reader printers have instructions next to them for loading and printing microfiche and microfilm, and a troubleshooting guide for quick reference.

· Copies can be made in both A4 and A3 size.

· If you have difficulty using the reader printers please ask Reading Room staff for assistance.

· Copies cost 95 cents per page, and are paid for at the Copying Desk at the Victorian Archives Centre (VAC) and the Enquiries Desk at the Ballarat Archives Centre (BAC).

Further Information

For further information about immigration and shipping records held by PROV please see:

PROVguide 52 Immigration Records, PROVguide 53 British Post World War II Immigration and PROVguide 54 Ships and Shipping Movements.

You can do a Find by Number search on PROV’s online catalogue for VF 99 Immigration - Monitoring Arrivals and VF 8 Immigration - Nineteenth Century.

Marine Births, Deaths and Marriages Index 1853 - 1920

The Marine Index is an index to births, deaths and marriages registered by ship captains from 1853 to 1920 and submitted by them to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. See PROVguide 26 Using Births, Deaths and Marriages Indexes at PROV.

Passenger List Availability Around Australia

The Unassisted Passenger microfiche between the years 1852 – 1899 are also available at libraries and genealogical centres around Australia.

Search Agents

If you are unable to visit a Reading Room to view records you can employ a search agent to conduct research on your behalf. For details of search agents please see PROVguide 15 Search Agents.

Passenger Lists After 1923

Passenger lists for immigration to Victoria after 1923 are held by National Archives of Australia (NAA). NAA are also located in the VAC Reading Room and their passenger lists are on microfilm and accessible in the microfilm area. Their contact number at the VAC is (03) 9348 5600