immigrant ship names

Scrutinizing Passenger Lists: Missed anything?

Posted on May 25, 2020 by guestbloggerMay 25, 2020

By Dr Jennifer Harrison. How exciting it is to finally identify the ship on which our forebears sailed from Europe to start new lives in Queensland! Taking the next step by consulting the actual passenger list and sharing the voyage with an ancestor, often proves even more informative. How many, both new dabblers or quite experienced researchers, really consider the listing and scrounge all the information available on each Queensland passenger record. Many deplore that we do not share the … Continue reading

The Kate and her companions who brought immigrants into Brisbane.

Posted on May 4, 2020 by guestbloggerMay 4, 2020

Stephanie Ryan State Library of Queensland A researcher was intrigued to learn that her ancestors, who arrived by the Susanne Godeffroy and Melmerby in 1865, Wansfell in 1866 and Royal Dane in 1869, all made the trip from Moreton Bay to Brisbane in the Kate. What was the Kate? What was the journey from the bay to Brisbane like? The Kate, a 150-ton iron, paddle-wheel steamer especially designed for Brisbane’s bay and river trade, was built in 1864 at Newcastle-on-Tyne … Continue reading

A life on the ocean wave!

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Pauline WilliamsApril 9, 2017

Two things prompted me to write about life on the ocean wave – in my family’s case the merchant marine and the Royal Navy. The first was a book I bought at the Lifeline Bookfest and, serendipitously it seems, an article in the latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine. The book is called Passage to America by Terry Coleman (1972, Pimlico Books, London). It tells the story of the, mainly Irish, emigrants ‘shovelled out’ from Britain … Continue reading