Findmypast.com Passenger Lists Now Complete

The following announcement was written by FindMyPast.com:

Leading UK family history website findmypast.com has completed its project to scan and index the complete set of outbound passenger lists for long-distance voyages from all British ports between 1890 and 1960.

Working in association with The National Archives of the United Kingdom, the project took a team of 125 people over a year to scan in the 1.1 million full colour individual pages - some handwritten, some typed. In total 24 million passengers are recorded travelling between these dates. Their reasons for travelling varied from emigration to diplomatic missions, to business trips or purely for pleasure.

The final decade to go live covers the years 1950 to 1960 and includes the so-called "Ten Pound Poms" travelling under the Australian government assisted passage scheme. In most cases the old UK address of the passenger is given, enabling family historians to trace back the roots of their British ancestors. Accompanying some of the 1960 lists are scans of the handwritten departure cards completed by each passenger. These show the full date of birth of the passenger as well as their UK address and occupation, with the names and dates of birth of any children travelling with them on the reverse - a goldmine for the genealogist.

There are also a number of famous people recorded travelling in the records during the 1950s. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair can be found listed as Anthony Charles Lynton Blair travelling on the Iberia to Adelaide on 24 December 1954, aged one, while on 5 August 1958 the young Bee Gees are recorded emigrating with their parents on the Fairsea to Sydney.

All seven decades of the passenger lists are free to search at findmypast.com. The images and transcripts can be viewed with either a 12 month Explorer or a 1 month Voyager subcription to findmypast.com, or alternatively with pay-per-view units or vouchers.

Comments

[JohnR]

"These show the full date of birth of the passenger as well as their UK address and occupation, with the names and dates of birth of any children travelling with them on the reverse - a goldmine for the genealogist."

These are a goldmine for a genealogist but they are also a gross breach of privacy for this genealogist - do I want my birth date and a former address available to anyone who subscribes to FindMyPast? If the release of this information is deemed acceptable by The National Archives, then let us have access to the Census up until 1960 !

[Glenda]

They might as well give us access to the census up to 1960.

Some states already give us the information. I can log on to Ancestry and trace cousins through birth, marriage and death indexes from the 1880's through the 1960's, '70's or 80's. Then if I'm willing to invest the time in searching, their children will be listed within the same page. I can trace entire descendant lines in this manner, and when I get to the current generation go to whitepages and look up their current or most recent past address and phone number. All of this in a time when we are concerned about identity theft.

[Happy Dae]

Most benefits come with a cost: fire, dynamite, electricity, nuclear power. I applaud FindMyPast! And take out Identity Insurance.

Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com