So I decided to crunch the numbers and see what they looked like.
After some analysis I can say that my grandparents on both side of the family were born in Australia, and that the bulk of my family has been in Australia for more than 3 generations.
I have lived in Victoria for most of my life with a short
stint in Queensland and New South Wales as a child, however I have always assumed that my grandparents and their ancestors had always
lived in Victoria. It’s interesting ponder why I would assume that my relatives were more or less static particularly when they had
come an enormous distance to get to Australia.
So what was their point of arrival?
As you can see above for those individuals that I have managed to pin point coming into Australia, only half came to Victoria initially, maybe they eventually came following work or seeking gold. They had all arrived in Australia by the 1895, one coming as early as 1816. It makes you wonder why they chose to come into certain ports, particularly if they turned up in Victoria within in 6 to 12 months later. Was it cheaper to go another state first, or was it the advertising that they say back in the home country, or was it easier to get tickets to other ports, or were there already relatives waiting for them in those places? Hmmm, lots of unresolved possibilities.
Looks like I need to revisit the data....but where to start?
Some parishes & locations took part in particular migration schemes, where there was active recruitment of migrants. 1816 is an early one for a non convict, likewise I have a branch to Victoria then to Tasmania in 1821. Might be worth a look on Trove and some early UK papers to see any adverts? That said, some of these were church schemes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip about TROVE I use it quite a lot but at times I overlook the obvious. You are right my 1816 immigrant is a convict, William Carbis - who in the end did very well for himself.
DeleteAs you rightly point out I also have an ancestor Reuben Wheeler who came out in 1842 from Bisley Parish, Glouchestershire, England and I believe he may have come out under a particular migration scheme although I haven't yet found out much information about it.
Sandra one set of my great great grandparents arrived in Brisbane in February 1878. My great great grandmother was due to give birth the following month. She declared Brisbane too hot so they went to Sydney in time for the birth of her youngest child. Ultimately they died in Perth. As well as Qld, NSW and WA they lived for some time in Brooklyn, USA as well after originating from England.
ReplyDeleteThe challenge of course is being able to think laterally enough to know where to look I suppose.
DeleteHi Sandra, I've just discovered your blog and I'm looking forward to following it. After seeing Sharon's posts then Pauleen's and yours I think I really need to do some analysis on the years of arrival for my ancestors - a blog post coming up soon I think.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed the way you have tagged locations in your posts (with country, county/state, and town) I need to clean up the location and surname tags in my blog and I would like to borrow that idea if I may. Thanks.
Glad to be of help, it's always nice to find new ways to things particularly if it helps finding things later on - which was motivation initially
DeleteAn interesting post Sandra. I think that graphics can be a great way to see our family history differently as you've shown here. Assisted immigration schemes may well have featured heavily in their decision about where to go initially, but I wonder whether relatives or friends interstate might have motivated them to move on, not to mention job opportunities, land or just the weather. Yes, I agree from my research into the Irish, having come around the world, moving around Australia wasn't such a big deal.Sharon's story is a good insight into how much they moved about. Love your Australia graphic on the sidebar.
ReplyDeleteI forgot the graphic came from http://pixabay.com/ after doing a search for Australia and flags - it's a copyright free graphic and I thought a little different than a flag even though that was what I was look for.
DeleteCheers, Sandra
I had never thought much the types of immigration schemes before, only that they were either assisted or unassisted. So your comment has got me thinking as Julie's comment did. I think I need to go back and think a little more closely about the types or records other than passenger lists that might exist for my ancestor in a more systematic way. For my 1840 ancestor I have a copy of an application to immigrate but no reference for it so no way (at the moment) to follow it up but it did reveal the name of his step father - Hmmm this might be worthy or a post!
ReplyDelete