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Transport – Immigration Records

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Records held by Public Record Office Victoria provide information about the administration of immigration to Victoria, ship's passengers and crew, and the ships themselves.  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 to search both categories of passenger lists. The following is a select list of records.

Ships' Passengers Lists

VPRS 8794 Register of Inward Shipping [Overseas and Intercolonial Ports] 1846 – 1852

[Microfiche Copy of VPRS 22 Unit 29]

This register records the arrival and departure of ships at the Port of Melbourne between 1846 and 1852.  Passengers are named in lists from January 1846 to October 1847.

 

VPRS 8795 Microfiche Index to Register of Inward Shipping  Overseas and Intercolonial Ports1846 – 1852  This Index is not contemporaneous with the records; created sometime after the actual arrivals.

 

VPRS 7666 Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (British Ports) 1852 – 1923

[Microfiche Copy of VPRS 947]

 

VPRS 7667 Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (Foreign Ports) 1852 – 1923

[Microfiche Copy of VPRS 947]

 

VPRS 13439 Inward Overseas Passenger Lists  (New Zealand Ports) 1852 – 1923

[Microfiche Copy of VPRS 947]

 

VPRS 944 Inward Passenger Lists (Australian Ports) 1852 – 1923

 

VPRS 3506 Outward Passenger Lists (Interstate, UK and Foreign Ports) 1852 – 1923 [Microfilm copy of VPRS 948]

 

See below for links to database indexes to passenger lists, available through PROV's website.

Assisted Immigrants

VPRS 7310 Register of Assisted Immigrants from United Kingdom 1839 – 1871

Microfiche copy of VPRS 14]

 

Index to Registers of Assisted Immigrants from UK 1839 – 1871 (online)

 

VPRS 8811 Assisted German Immigrants. Passenger Lists 1849 – 1850

 

VPRS 11402 Assisted German Immigrants. Index 1849 – 1850

 

See also PROVguide 53 British Post World War II Immigration

Ships' Crew

VPRS 2144 Registers of Discharged Seamen and Deserters 1852 – 1925 [Microfilm copy of VPRS 946]

 

VPRS 558 Seamen's Discharge Certificates 1882 – 1922

 

VPRS 945 Release Books of Ships' Crew 1857 – 1922

 

See PROVguide 49 Ships' Crew for more information.

Registers and Indexes of Ships

VPRS 3504 Inward Shipping Index 1839 – 1900 [Microfilm copy of VPRS 13]

 

VPRS 22 Miscellaneous Shipping Registers c1840-c1890

 

VPRS 954 Registers of Inward Shipping 1869 – 1924

 

VPRS 3503 Index to Inward Shipping 1880 – 1924 [Microfilm copy of VPRS 953]

 

See PROVguide 54 Ships and Shipping Movements for more information.

Correspondence and Administrative Records

VPRS 2142 Outward Letter Books to Local and Sydney (Superintendent, Port Phillip District)

[Microfilm copy of VPRS 16] 1839 -1851

 

VPRS 19 Inward Registered Correspondence (Superintendent, Port Phillip District) 1839–1851

 

To access the correspondence use VPRS 2138 Index to Inward Registered Correspondence 1839 – 1843 [Microfilm copy of VPRS 17] and VPRS 2139 Registers of Inward Correspondence 1839 – 1851 [Microfilm copy of VPRS 18]

 

VPRS 2877 Inward Registered Correspondence (Superintendent,Port Phillip District, Land Branch) 1847–1851

To access the correspondence use VPRS 47 Registers of Inward Correspondence 1847 – 1851

 

VPRS 2878 Inward Registered Correspondence II (Colonial Secretary’s Office, Land Branch) 1851 – 1852

To access the correspondence use VPRS 2879 Registers of Inward Correspondence 1851 – 1852

 

VPRS 115 Inward Correspondence I (Superintendent, Port Phillip District, Immigration Branch) 1849 – 1851

 

VPRS 116 Inward Registered Correspondence II (Colonial Secretary’s Office, Immigration Branch) 1851–1852

To access VPRS 115 and VPRS 116 use VPRS 2876 Register of Inward Correspondence [Immigration Branch] 1849 – 1851

 

VPRS 117 Outward Letter Books to Local and Sydney (Superintendent, Port Phillip District, Immigration Branch) 1849 – 1851

 

VPRS 1189 Inward Registered Correspondence [Colonial Secretary’s Office] 1851 – 1863

To access this correspondence series use  VPRS 1411 Index to Inward Registered Correspondence 1851 – 1962 and VPRS 1186 Registers of Inward Correspondence 1851 – 1863

Useful Publications

Coming South. Victorian Archives of Immigration, 1839-1923: A Guide. Public Record Office Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, 1995.

Available at some local and genealogical libraries.

 

Annual Reports of the Immigration Agent in Victorian Parliamentary Papers.

Available at the State Library of Victoria.  These reports provide information on the administration of immigration as well as detailed statistics.

Online Database Indexes

Index to Inward Overseas Passenger Lists from British, Foreign and NZ Ports 1852 – 1923

Index to Registers of Assisted Immigrants from UK 1839 – 1871

Index to Outward Passengers to Interstate, U.K. and Foreign Ports, 1852-1876

Macbeth Genealogical Services – “Assisted Immigration to Victoria 1836 to 1879 Ships” www.macbeth.com.au/indexes/assimmsearch.html

State Records, New South Wales – “Assisted immigrants arriving at Port Phillip, 1839-1851” www.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/searchform.aspx?id=3