Immigrating in 19th Century

montgo

Hi,

Just wondering what records/permissions, if any, were required to board a ship to the US, Australia, etc?

So all my lot would have headed for Queenstown/Cobh, did they have to prebook/pay for their tickets in advance? Maybe there were shipping agents in all the biggish towns.

How did one apply for assisted/free travel to Australia/New Zealand back then?

Thanks

Ponster

I doubt any permission was required as such. I know from looking at US records that the health of the traveller was a concern when deciding if they would be admitted. The amount of money they had was also recorded but I've seen people admitted with pennies to their name.

I think that yes, the assisted travel was pre-booked though I don't know if each large town had an agent (I would guess so though).

Have you found them in any online records?

montgo

Ponster wrote: »

I doubt any permission was required as such. I know from looking at US records that the health of the traveller was a concern when deciding if they would be admitted. The amount of money they had was also recorded but I've seen people admitted with pennies to their name.

I think that yes, the assisted travel was pre-booked though I don't know if each large town had an agent (I would guess so though).

Have you found them in any online records?

Thanks Ponster, for your reply. It was a more general enquiry really but I have many relatives of my ancestors who left Ireland and I have been unable to locate their travel details.

Did the emigrants not require any form of identification for travel or to apply for papers in their new country?

Here below is one relative who I have been trying to locate - Maurice b. 1857 in this NZ advertisement. He is supposed to have run away from home without money or papers following a row with his father. I suspect that his parents thought that he went to NZ as his 1st cousin was already living there, but he could have gone anywhere.... 3 of his brothers went to the US in the 1880s/90s. I am pretty sure that he did not arrive in NZ c1880.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 106, 6 May 1887, Page 3
Information wanted of Maurice Blackburn, of Aherlow Glen, County
Tipperary, Ireland, who left Ireland for Queenstown about 1879 or
1880. Any information of his whereabouts will be thankfully received
by his parents, or Edward Magner, General Post Office, Wellington, NZ.

Thanks for your help.

pedroeibar1

There are no fixed ‘rules’ about emigration; every occasion had its own nuances, depending on the year/era, the home place and the ‘new country’. Most country towns had shipping agents, they often were the town’s biggest grocery/hardware store.

Some emigrants had their fare paid by a landlord, others paid their own fares. Some left via Dublin to Liverpool and then to the US and elsewhere, others left from Queenstown/Cobh joining ships that had set sail from Liverpool or London and called to collect extra passengers. One strand in my tree went first to Australia and then some of their children went to NZ.

There was a huge exodus (paid for by the Queensland government) in the 1860’s from Kings/Queens Counties to Queensland. That was masterminded by an Irish cleric, Bishop Quinn of Queensland, which was referred to at the time as ‘Quinnsland’. Also, in subsequent years there was a very strong Tipperary emigration / clerical connection in Australia, various bishops and senior clerics were Tipp men (I’ve notes on that I’d need to dig out.)

Concentrating on your ‘Maurice’ and Oz/NZ, there was much media coverage of events in those countries in the aftermath of the Famine due to the end of Transportation (1850’s), gold finds in Oz, publicity on the escape of John Mitchell, development of railways, etc. In the 1860’s there was the above mentioned scheme of assisted emigration to Queensland, heavy reportage of the Burke & Wills trans-Australia expedition and the success of the newly-discovered goldfields in NZ at Otago. All around the date of your man’s birth makes it almost contemporary and surely an enticement to a young man looking for adventure/his fortune.

I have a relative (from Cork) who went out to Australia in 1863 and he paid his own passage, it cost just under £12 and he landed with £18 in his pocket – that latter sum in today’s terms is the equivalent of a couple of thousand euro and was more than adequate to set him on his feet in the new colony. Your Maurice could not have gone unaided.

If you really are stuck it would be worth a trawl through the Australian shipping records as many went there first and then moved to New Zealand or South Africa. You could also try the Oz library newspaper site, Trove, for a name search. I've been lucky that way.