It’s Free Access Week at Ancestry.com.au!
From 29 August – 6 September 2011, we are giving you free access to all our immigration and travel databases from around the world.
You can search 329 databases and more than 122 million records from the mid-1500s to mid-1990s to unlock the clues to your ancestor’s immigration. If you are one of the 29% of Aussiesⁱwho does not know the details of your ancestors’ arrival in this country, these records could assist you and millions of others in uncovering information about how and when your family came to land in Australia.
These records contain information about migrant ancestors who arrived in a new country and applied for citizenship or naturalisation in their new home land. They contain
- Passenger arrival records
- Naturalisation records
- Border crossings
- Emigration records
- Passport applications
- Convict transportation records
The databases include records from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Europe, United States, and Canada, so you can trace the movements of your ancestors to understand how and when they arrived where they did.
Many early immigrants and their descendants went on to achieve fame and notoriety in Australia including the late Heath Ledger’s great grandfather and Nicole Kidman’s 2x great-grandfather (you can view their records here).
Other famous names included in these records are passport applications for Walt Disney (shown below) and Franklin Roosevelt, as well as passenger lists of ships carrying Oscar Wilde and Charlie Chaplin.
Search for free until 9PM 6 September 2011 (AEST) at www.ancestry.com.au/travel. Let us know if you make any interesting discoveries!
ⁱThe Australians’ attitudes towards family history survey was commissioned by Ancestry.com.au and was conducted by The Online Research Unit (ORU) who polled a nationally representative sample of a 1000 people across Australia aged 18 and over, October 2010.