Emigrant Ancestors

Following on from my previous post below about immigrant ancestors with some useful websites this post now looks at emigrant ancestors.

If you have been unable to locate a missing ancestor on a UK census it may well be that they left these shores to find a better life, by assisted passage schemes or forced migration. It is interesting to note that passports have been in existence since the 15^th century. However it was not until 1914 when migration from the UK came under stricter control with the outbreak of WWI that they became a requirement.

Emigrant passenger lists from 1890 – 1960 with over 24 million records can be found at http://www.ancestorsonboard.com/#search_now

Some other useful websites to search are:

Ellis Island for emigrants entering the USA from 1892 with over 700,000 entries. This is a free and searchable website however you need to register for free to access the manifest images.

http://www.ellisisland.org/

Library and Archive Canada has a free searchable database. Between 1869 and 1930 over 100,000 children were sent to Canada from Great Britain.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/home-children/001015-100.01-e.php

Convicts to Australia. Free searchable database of convicts and convict ships arriving in New South Wales from 1788 to 1849, Western Australia from 1850 to 1868.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/index.html

The Ships List carries a huge amount of useful information as well as passenger lists for the USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa.

http://www.theshipslist.com/index.html