Passenger Lists

Emigration to Sydney [Illustrated
London News, 13 April 1844, page 229]

Key Resources

The main sources for locating passenger lists for New South Wales are listed here. There is a lot of overlap between them, and the indexing can vary, so we recommend searching in more than one place.

Ancestry Library Edition
Ancestry has a range of New South Wales passenger lists including assisted and unassisted passengers, departing crew and passenger lists and more. In most cases, copies of the original records have been digitised. To access these records within Ancestry, select Search - Australia & NZ - New South Wales - Immigration & Travel.

State Records Authority of New South Wales
Select Indexes Online to see the range of passenger lists available.

Genealogical Research Kit
This kit consists of material on microfilm and microfiche from the Archives Authority of New South Wales (now the State Records Authority of New South Wales). For detailed information on how to use the kit, please refer to the handbook located on top of the microform cabinets. The following passenger list material is included in the kit. Please note that those items also available on Ancestry have been marked with the Ancestry logo:

Passengers departing, 1816-25
(AO Reels 560 - 561 - Drawer 8)

Assisted (Bounty) immigrants to New South Wales, 1828-42 (AO Reels 1286 - 1349 - Drawers 10-12)
This dataset, including images, is available on the FamilySearch website at Australia, New South Wales, Index to Bounty Immigrants.
It has been indexed, but not digitised, on Ancestry. Alternatively, you can use the microfilm
Lexigraphical index to all passengers to Sydney, NSW, 1828-1842

Assisted immigrants to New South Wales 1838 - 96 and Moreton Bay 1848 - 59 (Agent's Immigrant Lists)
(AO Reels 2134 - 2143 - Drawer 12)

Wage agreements and entitlement certificates of persons on bounty ships, 1844 - 45
(AO Reels 2449 - 2456 - Drawer 13)

Persons on bounty ships to Sydney, Newcastle and Moreton Bay, 1848 - 91
(AO Reels 2458 - 2498 - Drawer 13)

Wives and families of convicts on bounty ships 1849-55
(AO Fiche 837 - 838 - Drawer 20)

Germans on bounty ships 1849-52
(AO Fiche 851 - Drawer 2)

Passenger lists of the Family Colonization Loan Society 1854-55
(AO Fiche 839 - Drawer 20)

Members of the Family Colonization Loan Society 1854-57
(AO Fiche 839 - Drawer 20)

Immigration deposit journals, 1853 - 1900
(AO Reels 2668A - 2676 - Drawer 13)

Unassisted passengers, 1826-1900
(AO Reels 1263 - 1280; 2851 and 399 - 560 - Drawers 4-8, 10 and 15)

Trove
The Digitised newspapers section of Trove covers the period up to 1954 and is a very useful source for passenger arrivals. We recommend using Advanced search and selecting New South Wales newspapers.Don't forget to use Australia-wide resources for passenger lists which are detailed on our Passenger Lists page.

Other Resources

Immigration.  Index to assisted immigrants arriving Sydney and Newcastle, 1844-59
Index to ships musters 1816-1825 : passengers & crew departing Sydney
The relations index of immigrants to N.S.W.
Note: Part 1 1848 - 1855. Compiled from Archives Office reels 2458 - 2472.
Name of immigrant, ship and year of arrival, relationship and relation.
2 indexes
1.  Alphabetical by name of relative in colony.
2. Alphabetical by name of immigrant.
Guide to shipping and free passenger records
Index to passengers into the Port of Newcastle 1865-1881
Rags or riches : passengers and ships, Sydney to California 1849 - 51
Rags or riches 2 : passengers and ships, California to Sydney 1849 - 1852
Index to unassisted arrivals to N.S.W., 1842 - 1855
Index to the N.S.W. immigration deposit journals 1853-1900
Lists alphabetically under immigrant and depositor those who were sponsored by friends or relations.  Gives Archives Office of New South Wales reel number reference to shipping list.
Immigration deposit regulations supplementary index 1856 - 1857: immigrants and depositors
Cornish immigrants : assisted arrivals in New South Wales 1837 - 1877
Ships and masters to Sydney index 1842 - 1855

What other information can I find?

Use our catalogue to find other material relating to passenger lists in New South Wales. For example, we hold some lists relating to specific ships. It is a good idea when searching for material relating to ships, to include the word ship in your keyword search e.g. bellona ship.

Other useful keywords include:
emigration
immigration
immigrants
passenger lists

Don't forget to look at our SLWA Family History Bookmarks under headings such as:
new.south.wales-passenger.lists
australia-passenger.lists
great.britain-emigration

Related Pages