Finding Alexander Fleming

Sir Alexander Fleming, the nobel-prize winning scientist who discovered the antibacterial effects of penicillin, travelled extensively during his lifetime and crossed the Atlantic several times, with the journeys logged on the Passenger Lists.

Fleming was born in East Ayrshire, Scotland in 1881. This event, along with many other Scottish records can be found on our sister-site, ScotlandsPeople.

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Fleming spent the first four years of his career working in a shipping office, but after being left an inheritance by an uncle, he decided to follow the career path of his elder brother, Tom, a physician.

He studied at St Mary’s Medical School, London University from 1901. Fleming can be found on the 1901 census, living in Marylebone, London, as a medical student (click image to enlarge):

Search for your ancestors in the 1841-1901 censuses

After qualifying with distinction in 1906, Fleming joined the research department at St Mary’s as an assistant bacteriologist.  He served throughout the First World War as a Captain in the Army Medical Corps, working in battlefield hospitals on the Western Front.

Fleming was ‘mentioned in dispatches’ (a report that was issued in the London Gazette, which recorded noteworthy actions) for his conduct in the war. Many soldiers who served or died in the First World War can be found among the findmypast.com military records.

Search for your ancestors in the military records now

During the war Fleming had repeatedly witnessed the deaths of soldiers from septicaemia that resulted from infected wounds, and he became convinced that antiseptics on deep wounds served to hinder a patient’s chances of recovery. When he resumed his post at St Mary’s he resolved to find a better alternative.

In spite of Fleming’s undoubted brilliance as a researcher he was also a somewhat careless and chaotic lab technician. It was his carelessness in leaving some cultures unattended whilst on holiday in 1928 that led to the discovery of the world’s first antibiotic, and revolutionised medicine.

Fleming gave many lectures on his work overseas, and can be found aboard the Aquitania in 1939, on a trip to the USA:

In recognition of his contribution to medicine, Fleming was knighted in 1944. The following year, alongside fellow pioneers Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of the bactericidal effect of penicillin. Here is Fleming on the Passenger Lists four years later, bound for America aboard the Queen Elizabeth:

Alexander Fleming died 53 years ago this month, on 11 March 1955, and his ashes were interred at St Paul’s Cathedral. His death is recorded in the findmypast.com death indexes.

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Here is Fleming’s final Passenger List voyage, aboard the Queen Mary, again bound for the USA, in 1950:

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The 1908 London Olympics

With Beijing 2008 finished and the countdown to London 2012 underway, we look back at the first time London hosted an Olympic Games, in 1908.

The White City Stadium (originally The Great Stadium) was built for the event. It housed a running track, a swimming and diving pool, plus platforms for wrestling and gymnastics.

In this, the fifth modern Olympic Games, there were just 24 sporting disciplines pertaining to 22 sports, and only 22 countries competing. Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales were entered as one team, the United Kingdom, but following protests from a number of Irish competitors and with fears of an Irish boycott, the team was renamed ‘Great Britain/Ireland’.

Rule, Britannia!

Showing its best ever Olympic form, the British team dominated the Games, finishing the overall winner with 56 gold, 51 silver, and 39 bronze medals – dwarfing the second place United States’ tally of 23 gold, 12 silver, and 12 bronze.   

Olympians on the findmypast.com Passenger Lists

Many 1908 Olympians can be found on the ancestorsonboard.com Passenger Lists leaving Britain after the Games.

Here is American George Mehnert, who won a gold in freestyle wrestling in the bantamweight class, aboard a ship aptly named the New York:

George Mehnert on the Passenger Lists

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Also aboard the New York is Mehnert’s teammate Sam Bellah. He competed in the pole vault, long jump, and triple jump, but failed to win a medal:

Sam Bellah on the Passenger Lists

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Charles Edward Swain, an Australian 1500 metre runner, was part of the Australasia team, which comprised athletes from Australia and New Zealand. Here he is aboard the Orient, returning to Australia:

Charles Swain on the Passenger Lists

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New decade added to the Passenger Lists 1940 to 1949

Findmypast.com has added another decade of records to the UK Outbound Passenger Lists currently available. Records now include 20 million names within 137,000 passenger lists spanning 1890 to 1949.

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1940s – Horrors, Hitler and the aftermath

The first half of the 1940s was one of the darkest periods in history, with global war causing millions of casualties and the horrors of the Holocaust. Buoyed by the USA’s entry following the attack at Pearl Harbor, the Allies eventually secured victory in Europe. Victory in Japan came only after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Following Armistice the world looked once again to rebuild: the ‘Iron Curtain’ descended in the East leading to the beginnings of the Cold War. Thousands of women left their families and homes to start a new life in Canada, America and Australia with the soldiers they had met and married. ‘Home Children’ were sent away to Canada for a better life, with mixed results. Commercial travel increased, as did the possibility of travelling for business, to compete in sports and other events.

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Notable passengers on board in the 1940s

One man whose influence on the decade cannot be overestimated appears in the passenger lists, travelling to America in 1946. Winston Churchill M P, following defeat in the 1945 election as the nation looked toward the social reforms of Attlee’s Labour Party, can be seen with his wife, valet and maid on board the Queen Elizabeth:

The American film star Spencer Tracy may be seen on the Queen Mary:

Whilst the famous sculptor Henry Moore can be found travelling to New York:

Other notable names include Walt Disney, Elia Kazan, Benjamin Britten and Joan Fontaine.

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Find your ancestors in the Passenger Lists

Search by person or by ship name alone. You can now also narrow your search with the name of a travelling companion. A comprehensive guide to searching the passenger lists can be viewed here.

Start Searching Now

Our premium Explorer Subscription offers you unlimited access to over 500 million records on findmypast, including the passenger lists, and costs £89.95 for 12 months – the equivalent of just £7.50 a month. The Voyager Subscription gives you 30 days’ unlimited searching of all the Passenger Lists for only £14.95.
You can also view the Passenger Lists on a pay-per-view basis. It costs 10 units to view a transcription and 30 units to view, print and save the full-colour digital images.

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Roger Casement – Reports and Republicanism

Sir Roger Casement was a British diplomat, lauded for his influential reports on human rights violations in Congo and Peru. So groundbreaking and revelatory was his work in exposing the ill-treatment of natives in these countries, he was knighted in 1911.

The Casement Report of 1904 led to the removal of King Leopold II of Belgium from his position of corrupt primacy in Congo.

Casement can be seen in the Passenger Lists travelling to Africa:

 

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His name has become synonymous not with his diplomatic work, however, but with the events of 1916.

Dublin-born Casement, partly as a result of a growing abhorrence of imperialism caused by his experiences in Congo and Peru, developed fervent republican sympathies. In 1916 he visited Germany in order to acquire arms and men to fight against British influence in Ireland.

Casement can be seen travelling to America in 1911, his ‘Sir’ appendage now in place:

 

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The trip to Germany was not a great success, he was promised far fewer arms than he had hoped, and gained little in the way of reinforcements for the nationalist cause. The arms were intercepted en route to Ireland.

On his return to Ireland, Casement was arrested, three days before the Easter Rising occurred. He was stripped of his knighthood and tried for treason, sabotage and espionage against the Crown.

Casement was ‘hanged by a comma’, British treason law was seemingly powerless to convict him on the basis that he had been on foreign soil when he negotiated with the Germans. Nonetheless a suitable application of the law was found and, coupled with the outcry surrounding his infamous ‘Black Diaries’ he was sentenced to death.

Roger Casement was executed at Pentonville Prison in London on 3 August 1916.

Search the Passenger Lists now.

 His death record can be viewed on findmypast.com

 

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Passenger lists to Argentina

Contrary to the impression sometimes given, Britain’s relationship with Argentina is as complex and multi-faceted as that with any other country. Military conflicts in 1806/07 and, more importantly for the modern memory, in 1982, and a football match in 1986, colour the picture but, when the bigger view is taken, it is clear that mutual enmity has not been the predominant emotion.

Britain was quick to recognise the newly independent Argentina in 1825. It did so because it recognised its own interests, both the opportunities for trade and the strategic need to pre-empt the United States in South America. British capital and goods flooded in and British communities developed, for instance in Buenos Aires (which was already 3,000-strong in the 1820s). Throughout the nineteenth century, Britain’s so-called informal empire – the regions where the country held economic sway – was at least as important as its actual empire.

British directors and investors effectively ran, and engineers and other technicians built, most of the large enterprises in Argentina, such as the railway, in the mid-19th Century. At the same time, Argentinean beef, mutton and grain were exported to Britain. The result was that by 1880 the Argentine Republic was “more important to the British economy than Egypt or China, or even Canada” (Ronald Hyam, Britain’s Imperial Century, 1815-1914).

This began to tail off in the Edwardian era but even as late as the eve of the First World War in 1914 British investment in Argentina (£319 million) was the same as that in South Africa, not far short of that in Australia (£350 million) and very significantly more than in New Zealand (£62 million) (Nigel Dalziel, Historical Atlas of the British Empire).

When World War One came in 1914, significant numbers of British in Argentina volunteered. The attached page of the passenger list of the Royal Steam Packet Co’s Meteor’s voyage to Argentina in July 1919 shows British officers and families repatriated at British government expense.

The BT27 passenger lists show a wide range of people travelling to and from Argentina. Many of the occupations given are related to the exploitation of the pampas – sheep farmer, ranch owner, wool buyer, estanciero – or to technical expertise – Cable & Wireless, railway official, civil engineer, accountant.

Some of the forenames of people travelling out to Argentina indicate earlier connections with the country – for instance, Carlos, Eduardo, Florencia, Orlando, Santiago. This is particularly true of the Welsh – see the Welsh in Patagonia blog for more information on the Welsh community. But don’t be surprised if, when looking at passenger lists for ships bound for Argentina, your search picks up a Francisco Smith, a Carlos Evans, a Juan MacDonald or a Catalina Murphy.

 View the full passenger list image

Are you a child of the Empire?

Empire’s Children contributor’s workshop.

On Wednesday 8 August, Channel 4 is running a one-day workshop for people with stories to tell about the British Empire.  The workshop is intended to complement the television series, Empire’s Children, currently airing on Monday nights at 9pm. Attendees are encouraged to bring photographs, transcripts and recordings if they have them.

Visit the website of Empire’s Children.

For further information email empireschildren@channel4.com

Empire’s Children on the Passenger Lists

One of the celebrities featured in Empire’s Children is Dame Diana Rigg. Diana lived in India between the ages of two and eight because her father worked on the railways in Bikaner.

Her father, Louis Rigg, was born in Doncaster and served an apprenticeship with the Great Northern Railway. At the end of his apprenticeship he decided to reply to an advert for unmarried men to come to Rajasthan and work on the railways, as work of a similar kind in England had grown scarce.

Aged 22, Louis left for India in 1925. His entry on the passenger lists on ancestorsonboard can be seen below:

Louis progressed during his time in India, eventually achieving the rank of Chief Mechanical Engineer on the Jodphur Railway. An equivalent post in Britain would have earned him a Knighthood.

After the Empire

Following Indian Independence, Louis and his family returned to Britain, like so many other families who had lived in comfort in India. The process of readjusting to life in the austerity of post-war Britain was a notoriously difficult one, particularly for someone who had grown used to mixing with the leading lights of the British administration.

There was a degree of antipathy towards those who returned to England  from India after World War Two,  a lingering sense that they had been absent during the hardships of that time.

Ancestors on Board currently includes outbound passenger lists from the UK from 1890 to 1929, but will eventually cover lists up to 1960.  

Search the passenger lists now

Moreton Bay Photo 12

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 12 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 11

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 11 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 10

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 10 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 9

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 9 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 8

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 8 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 7

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 7 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 6

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 6 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 5

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 5 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 4

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 4 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 3

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 3 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 2

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 2 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Moreton Bay Photo 1

To mark National Family History Week in Australia (4-12 August 2007) ancestorsonboard.com is launching the Moreton Bay Family History Challenge.

The Moreton Bay was the first of the Australian Commonwealth Government Line Ships designed to facilitate a state sponsored emigration of British subjects to Australia.

View a free two-minute movie entitled “Passenger Lists: People on the move” on the homepage of our sister site, findmypast.com. The movie contains original footage of passengers boarding the Moreton Bay for its maiden voyage from Tilbury, East London to Brisbane in 1921.

The accompanying full-colour 20-page passenger list will be made available free to view on the site from early August until the end of September.

Once you’ve seen the movie and viewed the images we want your help!

If you can identify anyone on the film or the list please email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com with the details of your research.

View an alphabetical list of the passengers’ surnames included on the list

To help you pick out individuals we’ve provided some stills from the movie. This entry is for photo 1 – if you recognise anyone in the photo please leave a comment here.

We’re giving away a free Voyager subscription to the first 50 people who can identify an ancestor within the 762 people who travelled on the Moreton Bay. If you think that someone on board is one of your ancestors, show us them in your family tree.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply upload your GEDCOM using the family tree builder on findmypast.com or start a tree from scratch using this new, free software. Once this is done email us at moretonbaychallenge@findmypast.com to let us know the details of your intrepid ancestor.

Use the family tree builder now

Please tell any of your family and friends that you think might be able to trace their ancestors emigrating to Australia aboard the Moreton Bay and present them with this exclusive way of researching their family trees.

Search the rest of the passenger lists

If you recognise anyone in this photo add your comments here.

Take the Moreton Bay Challenge today!

Good luck.

Children of the Empire

Find the Empire’s Children in your family tree

Starting on Monday 2 July at 9pm a new six-part Channel 4 television programme called Empire’s Children will be examining the Imperial backgrounds of six British celebrities, including Dame Diana Rigg, David Steel, Jenny Eclair, Chris Bisson, Shobna Gulati and Adrian Lester. The programme will be looking at the last days of the British Empire and the impact that it had upon modern Britain.

Imperial records on findmypast.com

With findmypast.com you can investigate your own connections to the Empire and discover ones that you didn’t even know existed. The exclusive Passenger Lists on ancestorsonboard.com currently cover every long-haul journey leaving the UK from 1890-1929 and include nearly 16 million names, detailing journeys to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South America, West Indies, Africa and many more besides. These full-colour, digital images make it easier than ever before to trace ancestors who left the UK for a life abroad or to serve the Empire for a few years. Search the Passenger Lists now.

Migration records

As well as the Passenger Lists, findmypast.com also contains a great number of other resources for tracing Children of the Empire. Search the Register of passport applications 1851-1903 as a perfect companion to the earlier passenger lists. Findmypast also holds a number of lists and registers for the East India Company, the India Office and the Bengal Civil Service. Search them now.

Overseas Birth, Marriage and Death records

Aside from Migration records, findmypast.com also hold extensive Consular and Overseas records. Find ancestors who were born, married or died abroad including our BMD’s at sea indexes.

Visit the website of Empire’s Children here

Another decade added to the UK Outbound Passenger Lists 1920 – 1929

Ancestorsonboard.com has added another decade of records to the UK Outbound Passenger Lists currently available. Records now include an incredible 15,749,960 names within 97,614 passenger lists spanning 1890 to 1929.

There’s more information available on the original images than in previous decades, such as each passenger’s last address in the UK, making it easier than ever to fill in the gaps in your research. 

The 1920s – bright young things and abdicating kings

It was the era of decadence and glamour. The Jazz Age in America, epitomised by the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Europe it was The Golden Twenties. With music, entertainment and art people looked to purge themselves of the horrors of The Great War; modernism flourished in both literature and an embracing of technological advances.

In this decade people were beginning to travel not purely out of necessity, but for its own sake. People still emigrated and travelled on business but were now also able to visit their family abroad, enjoy cruises and participate in international sporting events. Immigration to the USA began to tail off as, in 1922, the States looked to close their borders. This led to a growth in people looking to make Canada and, increasingly, Australia their new home.

Famous Names

Amongst the passengers recorded in this new decade are those from the burgeoning world of entertainment and sport. 

Noel Coward, Cary Grant, under his real name Archibald Leach

Albert Warner of the Warner Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford can all be found in the 1920’s passenger lists, as can the Third Lanark Football team.

The now defunct Third Lanark AC’s trip was to raise funds for Scottish exiles in Argentina; a copy of the letter negotiating costs can be viewed here.

Find your ancestors in the Passenger Lists

Search by person or by ship name alone. You can now also narrow your search with the name of a travelling companion. A comprehensive guide to searching the passenger lists can be viewed here.

Start Searching Now

The Voyager Package gives you 30 days’ unlimited searching of all the Passenger Lists for only £15. Our premium Explorer Package offers you unlimited access to over 500 million records on findmypast, including the passenger lists, and costs £125 for 12 months – the equivalent of just £10.50 a month. You can also view the Passenger Lists on a pay-per-view basis. It costs 10 units to view a transcription and 30 units to view, print and save the full-colour digital images.

Queens Advocate finds against The Crown

Today it is considered impolite not to discreetly overlook the complicity of African peoples in the slave trade. However, it is highly unlikely that the slave trade would have flourished as it did without the widespread and enthusiastic participation of Africans. Tribes such as the Ashanti in what was then the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and the Temni in Sierra Leone owned and traded in slaves. Ironically, Sierra Leone had been chosen by the British abolitionist Granville Sharp when seeking a colony for freed slaves and this led to the founding of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown in 1791. The Sierra Leone Company brought freed slaves from Nova Scotia and Jamaica to Sierra Leone and later, following the British abolition of the slave trade in 1808, the Royal Navy used Freetown as its base against slavers.

British relations with the native Temni people were generally amicable and trade flourished throughout much of the nineteenth century until an act of thoughtlessness and insensitivity by a governor, Sir Frederick Cardew, in 1893. Cardew received little or no money from London for the administration of the colony and needed to raise revenue, which he tried to do by means of a 5 shilling property tax. The tribal leaders took up arms at the indignity and the rising which followed in 1898 has become known as the Hut Tax War.

Afterwards, the Scottish barrister Sir David Chalmers QC was sent to investigate both the cause of the war and its conduct by the British. He found that Cardew was to blame. The Hut Tax was “obnoxious to the customs and feelings of the people” and was correctly perceived by tribal leaders as “taking away their rights in their country and in their property”. Moreover, it had been pitched too high and defaulters had been treated in a harsh and degrading manner. In short, the tax was unworkable, the people had a genuine grievance and the British now had their work cut out to rebuild not just the country and its infrastructure but also the confidence of the people. Unfortunately, Chalmers died shortly after submitting his report, the Colonial Office did not feel obliged to accept his findings and in 1900 the Hut Tax was re-imposed, albeit at a lower rate.

Click on the image below, which shows Sir David P Chalmers at the top of the passenger list of the Angola, dated 3rd July 1898, about to set sail from Liverpool to Sierra Leone. It is tempting to think that one or more of his four fellow travellers to Sierra Leone were accompanying him as part of a legal and secretarial support team but it is not possible to know this at this date.

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The loneliness of the South Atlantic

It is not easy to find positive comment written about South Georgia during the late Victorian or Edwardian period. “A barren snow-covered island in the South Atlantic, lying 800 miles ESE of the Falklands”, says one source from 1889, invitingly, adding as an afterthought “sterile and uninhabited”. Yet every possession in the British Empire needed its administrators and South Georgia, acquired in 1833 and annexed to the Falkland Islands, was no exception. There was no native population (other than that of penguins) to rule over, but there were itinerant sealers and whalers and, from 1909, that required the appointment of a magistrate.

The image below is taken from the passenger list of a January 1926 voyage of the Coronda from Glasgow to South Georgia Island. As he sailed to the end of the earth, the only passenger on board, 34-year old bachelor William Barlas of Pitlochry must have wondered what he had done to deserve his posting, and been grateful for the plentiful supply of long johns that his female relatives had knitted for him.

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How the British never ran out of steam

British steamships were powered by the miners of South Wales and the North of England. Without coal, there was no steam.

If you were the master of a British steamship, responsible for safely conveying passengers and your crew from, say, London to Auckland NZ, you would not wish to run out of coal mid-voyage, and there was little risk that you would. At the start of the BT27 passenger list period in 1890, it was probably not untrue to say that Britannia still ruled the waves and the Government controlled a network of strategically-placed coaling stations ocean-wide for the use and benefit of the mercantile marine as well as the Royal Navy.

There were 14 main coaling stations in British possessions, at which vessels could refuel. Spinning your globe anti-clockwise from the international date line, the 14 were King George Sound and Thursday Island in Australia; Hong Kong and Singapore in the Far-East; Trincomalee and Colombo in Ceylon; Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea; Simon’s Bay and Table Bay in South Africa; Sierra Leone in West Africa and St Helena in the South Atlantic; and, finally, Jamaica and Castries Bay, St Lucia in the Caribbean. There were of course smaller coaling stations, such as Esquimalt in British Columbia and Perim in the Red Sea. Steamships were of course amply provided with coal, as well as other necessaries such as food and water, before they left British shores for their destinations worldwide, but the existence of coaling stations ensured that ships weren’t caught short and that passengers reached their destinations without inconvenience.

The Scottish West Indies

It has been claimed that the Scots created modern civilisation as we know it (see Arthur Herman’s The Scottish Enlightenment – The Scots’ Invention of the Modern World). Certainly, Scots played a disproportionately large and influential role in the British Empire, making their mark across the globe as British army officers, administrators of colonies, plantation owners, missionaries, doctors and traders.

Jamaica is a case in point. The island had been a British colony since 1655, a fact witnessed, for instance, by the naming of its three counties as Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey. By 1817, an estimated 23.5% of the white population were Scots. Once slavery was finally abolished in Jamaica in 1834, the colony underwent an economic slump for several decades, during which the fortunes of the Scotch and other British planters suffered a severe decline. Investment from UK and America picked up from the 1860s, sugar was progressively replaced by bananas as the principal cash crop, and the country began to rally by the 1880s. By the time of the 1891 census, the year after the BT27 passenger list series begins, the population was 639,491, of whom only 14,432 (2%) were enumerated as being white.

The two main ports in Jamaica were Kingston (the port there was actually called Port Royal, but this name does not seem to appear on passenger lists) and Montego Bay. However, many passenger lists refer simply to “Jamaica” as the destination, the inference being that the ship would be calling at the capital Kingston. Most passenger lists of the 1890s and 1900s for Jamaica contain many Scottish names.

The first image attached is a page from a 1904 passenger list for a voyage of the Port Kingston. In common with many lists of the date, it seems that the ship’s purser paid little heed to the Board of Trade’s request to divide British passengers into English, Scotch and Irish: all on this page (and elsewhere within the passenger list) are counted in the English column and yet it is difficult to believe that at least some of the passengers named Mackenzie, Mackay, Meldrum, Mitchell, Tod and MacTavish were not native Scots.

The second image shows a solitary passenger, Donal Morrison, aged 23, single and a musician, sailing from Glasgow to Kingston in 1891 and bringing the very best of Scottish music to the Caribbean.

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Fishing fleet found in BT27 passenger lists

The attached image is the first page of the passenger list for the voyage of the Kaiser I Hind from London to Calcutta on 12th October 1893.

The passenger list shows what appears to be part of a fishing fleet. There are no obvious fishermen on board, however, because this is a very special type of fishing fleet. All the people on this page are noted simply as being “ladies and gentlemen”. Reading down the list of names, past Mrs Wright, Mrs Simpson, the infant and ayah (Indian nanny), you come to Miss Max, Miss Cowell, Miss Blyth, Miss Graham… a long sequence of unmarried women, down to Miss Sandys and Miss Good. This is the suspected “fleeting fleet”: marriageable young women sailing out to India in search of eligible bachelors, preferably the so-called “heaven-born” serving in the Indian Civil Service or officers in the Army. The fleet sailed out from Britain in the autumn or early winter and spent the next few cooler Indian months socialising at the British clubs and angling for a groom. There was always a shortage of unattached British women in India, so the arrival of the fishing fleet was doubtless fondly awaited by sincere and ardent gentlemen ready to be affianced, not to mention by dastardly bounders who enjoyed toying with a lady’s affections for the season.

Unsuccessful women – the “returned empties” – re-embarked for Britain in the spring.

According to the charity British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia, 2 million British and other Europeans are buried in the Indian sub-continent. Many more British people than realise it have a connection with India. If you are interested in the subject of the British in India from a family history perspective, two excellent places to start are BACSA’s website and the Families in British India Society.

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Anyone for Jones River?

Some of the most fascinating of the passenger lists of the 1890s are those of the British & African Steam Navigation Company Ltd serving the West Coast of Africa. The lists themselves are pro forma, with “List of passengers per SS…” pre-printed at the top of the page followed by a space for the master to fill in the name of the ship, the date of departure from Liverpool and the destination. Each list is short, giving details of maybe a dozen or 15 passengers.

These handwritten documents are pleasing in themselves but what is particularly interesting about them is that the shipping company operated an “on demand” or “request” feeder service. In other words, rather than having a fixed itinerary, each sailing would call en route at those ports at which the fare-paying passengers wished to disembark. This means that, as a researcher, you do not know from one passenger list to the next where a ship will be calling. It also means that obscure and small ports or harbours sometimes appear in the lists.

The obscurity of some of the ports can create difficulties for us at ancestorsonboard when we come to check the transcription of lists and to match destination ports with countries for online searching. For instance, in the entire decade of the 1890s we appear to have just single sailings to places called Pedro and Jones River. The accuracy of the transcriptions has been checked and they are faithful to the original document. However, at the time of writing we remain uncertain as to the location of these two ports. We know of course that they must have been somewhere upon the route of the vessel indicated by the destinations of other passengers, but this simply means that we have to consider Madeira, the Canary Islands and the entire coast of Africa from Morocco round to the Congo. We believe that Pedro may well be San Pedro in the Ivory Coast. To date, however, we have not identified a Jones River in West Africa.

Click on the link below for a passenger list for a typical West Coast of Africa voyage from 1892. You can see the various stopping-off ports listed down the right-hand side. This list was chosen by way of example as it includes a Mr F M Hodgson travelling to Accra in what was then the Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana). Mr (later Sir) Frederick Mitchell Hodgson was the Governor of this British colony at various points between 1889 and 1900 and features at least seven times in the passenger lists for the 1890s. There are also two lists which presumably refer to his wife, the earlier one as Mrs and the later as Lady Hodgson. You can find other Administrators and Governors of British West African colonies in the BT27 passenger lists for the 1890s – for instance, try searching for Sir Robert Baxter Llewelyn (going to Gambia), or Frederick Cardew or William Hollingworth Quayle Jones (both Governors of Sierra Leone).

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The Honourable Member

Ancestorsonboard was launched last week with the long-distance outbound passenger lists for the period 1890-1899, being the first 10 years of records held within The National Archives’ BT27 record series.

By the 1890s, Britain’s long relationship with India had become a complex entanglement, full of contradictions and paradoxes. It’s interesting to see in the passenger lists for vessels heading out to India not just British passengers but also a good number of Indians – and not just the occasional anonymous ayah attending young children (an ayah was an Indian nanny, usually greatly beloved by her charges, judging by autobiographies and oral histories of the British in India). If you search on ancestorsonboard under any common surname from the sub-Continent, there is a decent chance that you will be returned positive search results. Try for yourself under names such as Ali, Banerjee, Khan, Rahman or Singh. Some of these men – and they usually were men – were professionals: lawyers, doctors and teachers who had been educated or trained in UK. Others were Indian princes – the other day I came across His Highness The Maharajah of Kapurthala.

Click below to see a page of a passenger list from 1896 which, five names from the end, includes “Bhownaggree Mr MP”, a single male “gentleman” travelling from London to Bombay. We cannot be entirely sure but it seems highly probable that MP refers to Member of Parliament and not the initials of the traveller in question. If so, this passenger list captures a historic figure in Anglo-Indian relations. Although today not a household name like Gandhi, Sir Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree was well known in his day. His achievement was to become only the second Indian to be elected to the House of Commons and the first Tory MP to be so – the first Indian MP in Britain, Naoroji, had entered the House as a Liberal Party MP in 1892. Against all expectations at the time, Bhownaggree, who was a barrister, won a seat in Bethnal Green in London’s East End in 1895 and, moreover, held it and was re-elected in 1900. Bhownaggree also serves as a salutary warning against the over-simplifying of history: he was a supporter of the British Empire and yet a campaigner against the over-taxing of India, respected by Gandhi as a champion of the rights of Indians in South Africa but known by other Indian nationalists as “Bow and Agree” because of the accommodations he made with the British.

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