Shipping - South Australia

Family History South Australia
This site provides resources for family history research on South Australians and includes a searchable database of SA Passenger Lists up to 1850 for more than 1200 voyages.

South Australian shipping
Includes some passenger lists from 1836 to 1840 the site has searchable databases that will allow you to access details of ships arriving in South Australia.

South Australian Shipping Lists 1836 - 1851
Our aim has been to gather as many South Australian passenger lists as possible between 1836 and the 1860s. To December 2004 we have over 2000, most of which are now available for you to view. We also have a number of passenger lists for ships which arrived in South Australia after the 1860s. A Database has also been created from all these passenger lists currently 52,000 families. We are currently considering how to make this available to you as a searchable database (possible on a CD).

This site also has searchable databases, you will need to have the year and the name of the ship in order to locate passenger lists. There doesn't appear to be a searchable passenger list available.

19th Century Shipping
Into South Australia - list of ships only

The ShipsList
The ShipsList website, online since August 1999, will help you find your ancestors on ships' passenger lists. We also have immigration reports, newspaper records, shipwreck information, ship pictures, ship descriptions, shipping-line fleet lists and more; as well as hundreds of passenger lists to Canada, USA, Australia and even some for South Africa. Be sure to check the "special projects" section. We have over 3,000 totally free access web-pages with new databases added regularly, To make best use of your visit, use the Navigation-bars (buttons and text) which are on the top of every page, to help you find your way around.

German Emigrants to South Australia1837-1860
This is another new project of immigrants arriving in South Australia, from Germany. It is currently up to 1856. These lists have been transcribed from the original passenger lists, by Robert Janmaat of Adelaide, who has generously shared them with TheShipsList. Where available, extracts regarding a particular ship have been included, from the Sydney Shipping Gazette and the South Australian Register. The South Australian Government Gazette (return showing deaths on board Emigrant ships 1849 to 5th June 1865) has also been consulted.

note: the original lists were created by an individual unfamiliar with German names, so name spellings from the Biographical index SA (BISA) have been included in brackets. The list below has been compiled from a variety of sources such as the BISA, the Birth-Death-Marriage (BDM) index, the newspaper list (above), online research and has also been cross-checked to a list by Dulcie Love, long time convenor of the Germanic research group at the South Australian Heraldry Genealogy Society (SAGHS). There are a few gaps in this list, but from my experience in researching German passenger lists, I have found that quite a few German settlers migrated from South Australia to Victoria and Queensland. Robert Janmaat

''Clicking on the hyper-links for each year highlighted, will take you directly to the list of ships for that year. Clicking on each ship will give you a passenger list, with in some cases the maiden name of the wife, the list also gives the age of the person. You will find that young adults are listed separately from their parents and siblings.''

Other
Links to other South Australian Resources (clicking on off-site links will open a new browser window)


 * State Library South Australia shipping and passenger records
 * State Records of South Australia passenger lists - incoming
 * Family History South Australia Barry Leadbeater
 * Bound for South Australia 1836 - 1851  by Di Cummings
 * German Emigrants to South Australia, 1837-1860

Where available, extracts regarding a particular ship have been included, from the Sydney Shipping Gazette and the South Australian Register. The South Australian Government Gazette (return showing deaths on board Emigrant ships 1849 to 5th June 1865) has also been consulted.

Name Search:
Even if you have the basic details, you may still be unable to locate information since some passenger lists have not survived to present day. Over time, a number were lost or accidentally destroyed. Fires caused by lamps and candles were responsible for the destruction of many early South Australian records. Passenger lists for ships travelling between the colonies are scarce as these records were not required by immigration and remained the property of the shipping companies. As ship travel declined, shipping companies either closed or amalgamated and their records were lost in the process. The movement of people travelling overland within Australia, as a general rule, was either not recorded or has not survived. The State Library does hold a limited amount of information regarding immigration to some of the other colonies. Despite these limitations, thousands of immigrant names are available at the State Library for your perusal.

Notes and tips:
From the source material (Official passenger lists mainly of immigrants arriving in South Australia under UK assisted passage 1845-86) formerly known as Source 313, then GRG35/48a and now GRG35/48/1 at State Records (SA), this section lists the vessels whose records survive in some form from 1836 to 1886. The number of voyages with surviving records number just 749 and the material available for each list varies considerably. The material you do locate may include any of the following: An embarkation list prepared by the agent or emigration agents. A passenger manifest prepared by the captain. Certificate of arrival prepared by the immigration officials. Sundry lists created for other purposes such as fee-payers, land-holders.

Hint: Read the first page header of the shipping list carefully to determine what you are looking at! Problems include:


 * Survival rate of lists is poor.
 * Lists may not be a true indication of the immigrants who actually arrived.
 * Writing is often difficult to decipher.
 * Useful information on origins is rare.
 * Teenagers in families are split off and listed as single men or single women.
 * Departure and arrival date may vary from record to record.
 * Fee-paying passengers usually not recorded.
 * Crew never recorded except in manifests.