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.)

My Web site has moved

Please spread the word...

Judy Webster's Web site has moved!

The site has advice and indexes that help genealogists to research local, interstate and overseas folk by using historical records. The emphasis is on unusual sources that are superb for problem solving.

Features of the new site include:

• 135 pages, and more than 53,000 names (including tens of thousands of people from other States and countries, especially the UK, Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia and New Zealand) from Judy's indexes to original records in Queensland State Archives.


• Additional names from certificates, headstones, church plaques, published local histories, etc.


• Tips on how to research 'black sheep of the family' and people who 'vanished'.


• Unusual sources that are superb for problem solving (including records of asylums, hospitals, Police, Justice Department and Courts).

The site is now easier to use, with a different font, a new 'main menu' navigation bar, and 'breadcrumb' navigation links. Many pages have a section called 'Other Suggestions'. Before using the customised search box, read the search/navigation tips.

The new Web address is www.judywebster.com.au.

Please update your bookmarks and ChangeDetection settings, and notify family history groups, genealogy mailing lists etc.

Can't find a death? Maybe he/she died overseas. Check indexes on FindMyPast.
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Illuminating Blogger Award

I was surprised and honoured when two of my blogs received multiple nominations for the Illuminating Blogger Award. At what was a sad and chaotic time in my life, these comments were a comfort.

Fiona said:   Queensland Genealogy was the first geneablog I found, and Judy has flung open so many doors for me. Judy also runs the Genealogists for Families Kiva group which has done so much to help so many.

Alona said:   Judy has a number of different blogs, but I've chosen to nominate her Queensland Genealogy blog because since she took up the 'Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge' she has been highlighting various Queensland records – and every one of them has taught me something new.

Helen said:   Judy Webster is a well known Queensland professional researcher and a personal friend. Judy is very generous with her knowledge. Her website is full of useful information for anyone doing Queensland research. Her latest entries in Alona's 'Family History Alphabet Challenge' showcase fascinating records. Judy does a number of blogs including one about her father's early life. In honour of her father she started the Genealogists for Families project where people make micro-loans via Kiva enabling other families to make a better life for themselves.

Jill nominated the Genealogists for Families blog:   'Genealogists for Families' Project team leader and blogger, Judy, is an inspiration as she encourages genealogists to reach out and help families in third world countries with micro-loans. Judy's enthusiasm for this project and her personal generosity know no bounds.

Having received the award, it is now my duty to tell you one random fact about myself (my hobbies include paper-making and collecting postcards) and to give the award to five other blogs with illuminating content. They are (in no particular order):

• The Legal Genealogist: The author is a certified genealogist with a law degree. She writes about 'genealogy, the Law, and so much more'. Categories include Constitutions, Copyright, Court Cases, DNA, Legal definitions, Methodology, Primary Law, Resources, Statutes, Terms of use.


• Historical Medical Miscellany: I find this blog both interesting and informative, especially as I am a medical scientist and an indexer of hospital and mental asylum records.


• Sassy Jane Genealogy: Practical advice from a genealogist who is also an archivist.


• London Roots Research: I have lots of London ancestors, and Rosemary writes about both basic and unusual sources (for example, Fire Insurance records).


• Dance Skeletons: Fiona's sense of humour is often a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dull day. Thank you for making me smile!

Free Certificates in Archives Files (Thrifty Thursday)

Before buying certificates, check whether there is a free alternative!

The sources mentioned below are in Queensland, but similar records exist in many interstate and overseas repositories.

Before buying a certificate from the Queensland Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, check whether that certificate is included in a file at Queensland State Archives. If it is, you can either take a digital photograph or save an image to a USB memory stick free of charge. (The Archives keep changing their Web site, so use Google to find the current URL.)

At the Archives you can often see certificates that you cannot buy from the Registry (because of differences in access restrictions). Certificates in archival files are often more accurate than typed copies issued by the Registry now.

From about the mid-1890s onwards, most Queensland Supreme Court 'will' files, and some 'intestacy' files, contain the death certificate. There are also probate files in Queensland for many people who died in other States and countries.

I sometimes find that the information on the death certificate in a probate file and the information on the certificate you bought from the Registry are significantly different! In one case the certificate in the probate file listed children who were not mentioned on the copy my client had bought from the Registry. In another case the probate file's copy showed that a person had lived in both the Northern Territory and Queensland (and how long in each place), but a more recent typed certificate from the Registry did not mention that.

I have seen birth, death and marriage certificates (including some from overseas) in many series of records. They include (but are not limited to):

• Supreme Court probate files ('wills' and 'intestacies'), divorce files and equity files
• Public Curator insanity files and Supreme Court insanity files
• Lands Department selection files
• Colonial Secretary's Office correspondence
• Police staff files
• Court of Petty Sessions maintenance records
• Police watchhouse records.

More information about those sources is in the book Tips for Queensland Research. For wills and probate records see also Queensland Genealogy and Archives Research Tips.

Postscript 1:  For the rest of Australia, see Kerry Farmer's suggestions re certificates.

Postscript 2:  A friend and I are creating an index for certificates that we find in odd places in Archives files. In the future, names from that index will be added to my main Web site.