Passport Records

It's great to see more Queensland records being added to Findmypast - for example, the indexes to passport registers 1915-1925 and passport registers and receipts 1926-1939. Most applicants lived in Queensland but some gave an interstate or overseas address including England, Canada, Papua, Ceylon, Fiji and China.

The National Archives of Australia and Queensland State Archives hold various series of passport records. They include:

• Immigration Department: passport clearance register 1926-1935 (Qld State Archives series 7149; one item). This register gives the passenger's name, ship and date of arrival, State of disembarkation, ship and date of departure, passenger's reason for returning overseas, and whether he/she was planning to return to Australia.


• Immigration Department: passport receipts 1930-1939 (Qld State Archives series 10222; thirteen items). These are duplicates of passport clearances issued to assisted immigrants. They give the passenger's name, ship and date of arrival in Australia. Some also give the ship and date of departure and how long the person expected to be away.


• Passport registers 1915-1974 (National Archives of Australia, Brisbane Office). After the Passports Act 1920, Australian residents over sixteen years of age needed a passport if they left the country. This did not apply to those going to New Zealand, Papua or Norfolk Island. Others who were exempt included merchant seamen and defence force personnel on duty. The National Archives Brisbane Office holds passport registers 1915-1974 and various other records of people departing Australia. Some of those passport registers have been indexed in the Queensland Passports Index 1915-1925.

If a person 'vanished' (either temporarily or permanently), passport records are definitely worth a look. They can also reveal interesting information about overseas holidays or trips to visit relatives.

NOTE!  The transcription on Findmypast is a useful finding aid, but it does not include all details, so it is essential to get a copy of the original document. If you can't go to the Archives yourself, ask about my copying service.

For other countries, these links take you to lists of passport records on:

• Findmypast (including the British Index to Register of Passport Applications 1851-1903)


• Ancestry (including records for the USA, France, Portugal, Latvia and other countries).

(This post first appeared on https://qld-genealogy.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/queensland-passport-registers-1926-1939.html.)

Queensland Customs House Shipping Index 1852-1885

"Queensland Customs House Shipping 1852-1885 Passengers and Crew" is an exciting new index compiled from Brisbane Customs House records (Shipping Inwards Series J715) held at the Brisbane Office of the National Archives of Australia. It is a vital resource for genealogists and others who are researching merchant mariners or passengers from Europe to Queensland.

Note that this index includes over 90 voyages that are not in the Queensland State Archives online index.

Most voyages were to Brisbane, but there are a few from Brisbane to an overseas port. The ships sailed from Batavia, Boston, Dundee, Glasgow, Greenock, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Liverpool, London, New York, Newcastle on Tyne, Plymouth, Queenstown, Singapore, San Francisco, Sydney, the South Sea Islands and Southampton. (Queenstown is the old name for Cobh, the port for Cork, Ireland.)

For some ships there are two lists, one prepared at the time of departure and another on arrival. Some of the records are for ships that carried passengers but were not specifically migrant vessels.

Each person's entry may include name, title, age, sex, marital status, occupation, nationality, whether passenger or crew, comments, ship, year and port of departure/arrival, etc.

The index is available on CD-ROM from the Queensland Family History Society. It is also online at FindMyPast. Some given names are abbreviated in the records, so you may need to search for an initial or an abbreviation (eg, 'Chas' for Charles). Searching is free at FindMyPast. To see transcriptions you need either pay-as-you-go credits or a one-month or twelve-month subscription.

(This post first appeared on http://qld-genealogy.blogspot.com.au/.)

Wrong names in immigration records

Some Immigration Department passenger lists at Queensland State Archives are annotated 'pension enquiry' with a note showing that the passenger list was wrong. Examples that I have seen include:

Name (wrong) in passenger list / Real name:
FLYNN Mary / OFLYNN Nora
POLLOCK Alex / TAYLOR George (yes, really!)
ATCHISON Robert / ATKINSON Robert
HUSTON Robert / HUDSON Robert
MANN Thomas / MANN Patrick
NEEVE Martin / McNEEVE Martin
READ George / REID Robert
TAUGHER James / TUCKER James