Ancestry recently gave free access to worldwide immigration and emigration records from the UK, North America, Australia, Europe and several other popular destinations. The records included passenger lists, naturalisation records, immigrant registers and convict transportation lists.
I don’t have a paid Ancestry subscription at the moment as I really can’t justify the price. I received an email reminder about the records last night and managed to squeeze in an hour of searching before free access ended.
I found a couple of records of interest:
1. Border Crossings from Canada to US [year?]
- Rita St Clair Cole
- age 22
- occupation Housekeeper
- Last permanent residence – illegible
- The name and complete address of nearest relative or friend in country whence alien comes – illegible
- Final destination – illegible
2. UK Incoming passenger lists
- Name of ship Briton, steamship line Union Castle MSS?
- Date of arrival May 28th 1910
- Whence arrived Natal etc
- Port of arrival Southampton
- Port of embarkation – Cape Town
- Mr Robert Cole, 3rd class
- Profession Civil Servant
- Irish, age 27
vintage postcard of the Union Castle ship Briton
I was more surprised that I couldn’t find any records relating to George Duncan who came from Canada to the UK (I think the records start after this date unfortunately).
I also couldn’t find any records of William Cole or his father, Robert Cole, who had a South Africa connection. It’s great to add two new records to my family tree though. I have never successfully used these records before and I’m really happy to have information other than census and BMD records!
