****************************************************** PRO FREE GRATIS AND FOR NOTHING "RECORDS INFORMATION" LEAFLET [Note: this and all other PRO Records Information leaflets are Crown Copyright, but may be freely reproduced except for sale or advertising purposes. Please respect this] ******************************************************* FAMILY FACT SHEET 10 TRACING AN ANCESTOR WHO WAS AN EMIGRANT There are a great many references in documents held at Kew to individual emigrants, but there is no central index of names. The following classes of record are those most likely to be useful. Choose the class you think might contain information on the emigrant you are looking for and use Family Fact Sheet 1 to help you get an exact document reference. HO 11 Convict Transportation Registers 1787 - 1871. These list the transport ships, giving the names of all the convicts who sailed on each ship. HO 10 Censuses of Convicts 1788 - 1859. These list convicts and their families in New South Wales and Tasmania. The census for 1828 is the most complete. Information Leaflet 94 will give you more information on Australian convicts and suggest other classes of record to try. BT 27 Passenger Lists, Outwards Lists earlier than 1890 no long~er survive. They give the names of passengers leaving the United Kingdom by sea for destinations outside Europe. The lists form a veryv large class and there is no index of names. To use them you need to know the approximate date of departure, the port, and if possible, the name of the ship, because they are arranged year by year by the port of departure under the name of each ship. BT 32 Registers of Passenger Lists date from 1906 and under the name of each port list the ship which sailed from there each month. FO 610 Passport Registers 1795 - 1898. These contain entries in date order of the names and countries of destination of all persons to whom passports were issued. FO 611 Index of names to passport registers, 1851-1862, 1874-1898. At this period it was not necessary to have a passport and most people did not apply for one. COLONIAL OFFICE RECORDS These are not easy to use and you should ask for guidance at the Reference Desk. The main correspondence class for each colony may contain papers relating to individual settlers, and the following are some examples: CO48 Cape Colony, Original Correspondence, includes letters and papers about grants of land, 1814 - 1825. CO 201 New South Wales, Original Correspondence, has a number of lists of convicts and free settlers, 1801 - 1821. There is an index to this class which is held at the Reference Desk. CO 384 Emigration Original Correspondence, contains many letters from settlers and people intending to emigrate.