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Series VPRS 8811
German Immigrants - Estray Correspondence and Passenger Lists (microfiche copy of VPRS 8810)
About this Series Related Series Accessing the records in this Series
Date Range: Series 1994 - 1994
  Series in Custody 1994 - 1994
  Contents 1849 - 1850
Public Access: Closed
Location: North Melbourne
Format of Records: Physical
 
Agency which created this SeriesAgency which created this Series
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Date Range Agency Title Agency Number
1849 - 1850 Superintendent, Port Phillip District VA 473
1994 - 1994 Public Record Office [also known as Public Record Office Victoria from c.1996] VA 683
Agency currently responsible for this SeriesAgency currently responsible for this Series
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Date Range Agency Title Agency Number
1994 - cont Public Record Office [also known as Public Record Office Victoria from c.1996] VA 683
Description of this SeriesDescription of this Series
  • How to use the Records
    How to Use this Series

    Use VPRS 11402 Index to VPRS 8811 and consult the records description list for this series.

    Nature of this Series

    This series is a microfiche copy of VPRS 8810. The copy was made in 1994 on behalf of the Public Record Office. The series is comprised of seven estray documents (that is documents which have at some point been removed from their official custody) relating to German immigration to the Port Phillip District in 1849.

    In light of the purpose and contents of the documents (see below) it is unclear how or why they came to be collected together or when they came into the custody of the Public Record Office. They have been registered as one series because they relate to the same subject matter.

    The Superintendent of the Port Phillip District (VA 473) has been shown as the agency recording this series. It is probable that the passenger lists were written or collected by the Immigration Branch of the Superintendent's office. The correspondence, although written by the Superintendent, was almost certainly a part of the correspondence system of the New South Wales Colonial Secretary to whom it was sent.

    Background

    Between February and April 1849 three ships arrived in Port Phillip from Hamburg, Germany, carrying between them 309 German immigrants. The immigrants' arrival initiated numerous communications between officials in Port Phillip, Sydney and London because the proprietors of the voyages claimed the bounty which the government offered for certain categories of immigrants arriving in the Port Phillip District. Such financial assistance was usually not payable for non-British immigrants unless they fell within certain approved occupational categories. Most of the German immigrants on board the three ships did not fall into these categories.

    Function/Content

    There are two types of documents on this microfilm. There are four original letters to the New South Wales Colonial Secretary; three from the Superintendent of the Port Phillip District and one from the Agent for Immigration in Sydney. The letters all relate to the application for bounty made by the managers of the ships which transported German immigrants to Port Phillip.

    Annotations on the letters indicate that they were received by the New South Wales Colonial Secretary and incorporated into the registry system of that Office (see below). It is not known when or why they were removed from the Colonial Secretary's correspondence system and returned to Victoria.

    There are also three lists of German immigrants who arrived in 1849; one for each of the three ships. It seems most likely that the lists were compiled at the time the ships arrived in Port Phillip either by the ships' masters as the basis of their claim for bounty or by immigration officials in port.

    The lists do not appear to be attachments to the correspondence described above, however a consolidated list of passengers on the three ships forms the attachment to one of the letters and may have been compiled from these lists.

    Each list details the names of immigrants, their calling (occupation, trade or status), age, native place, religion, whether they could read and/or write and whether they were in possession of a Bible. The lists also give details of births and deaths during the voyage.

    Correspondence to the Colonial Secretary: Record-Keeping System

    The letters to the Colonial Secretary show evidence of their relationship to two recordkeeping systems:

    The three letters from the Superintendent each bear an outward letter number. The Superintendent's copies of these letters can be found in VPRS 2146 Outward Letter Book to Sydney (Immigration Branch) (microfilm copy of VPRS 117), although the attachments are not included in the Letter Books.

    The letters are also annotated with the New South Wales Colonial Secretary's inward letter number. Notes and cross-references on the documents suggest that they were originally filed together in a top-numbering system. In other words as another letter about German immigration was received and registered, related previous letters were removed from their position in the filing system and placed with the most recent one. The letters have now been filmed in top-number order with the letter with the highest number (the letter last received by the Colonial Secretary's Office) at the beginning of the film.

    A further number, written in small figures at the top of each letter, appears to be an annual single correspondence number with the prefix 51 (representing the year 1851. The significance of these registration numbers is not known.

  • Function / Content


  • Recordkeeping System
More research resourcesMore research resources
    PROVguide052 Immigration Records
Indexes and RegistersIndexes and Registers
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Date Range Series Title Series Number
1849 - 1850 Index to VPRS 8811 German Immigrants - Estray Correspondence and Passenger Lists VPRS 11402
Controlled SeriesControlled Series
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Date Range Series Title Series Number
Previous SeriesPrevious Series
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Transfer Date Series Title Series Number
Subsequent SeriesSubsequent Series
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Transfer Date Series Title Series Number
List/s of records in this seriesList/s of records in this series
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Consignment Number Contents Date Range Public Access No. of Units
P0001 1849 - 1850 Closed 0
Indexes and RegistersIndexes and Registers
Display entries per page
Date Range Series Title Series Number
1849 - 1850 Index to VPRS 8811 German Immigrants - Estray Correspondence and Passenger Lists VPRS 11402
More research resourcesMore research resources
    PROVguide052 Immigration Records

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