Genealogy Chat

Christine, Firstly, I believe you need to know the name of the ship May came here on and where it landed. I am unaware of any website that lists all passenger lists. There are some but not all passenger names have been listed. The website I used for tracing my family was the Perth Dead Persons Society. Strange, but true!!!. That website only goes to about 1910ish and doesn't list passenger on every ship. However the address is www(.)perthdps(.)com(.)shipping. Each other capital city seems to have a dead persons society website. As I do not live in Sydney, I am unaware of the names of places to go to in Sydney to trace this information, but I am positive there would be plenty of places in Sydney to do this. First would be the office of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Web address is http(:)//www(.)bdm(.)nsw(.)gov(.)au/. This site gives its address and phone contact numbers. It also has quite an extensive searchable data base. Check out the links section, it gives plenty of other hints and tips on where to look. Apart from the above, I am sure if you check the phone book when you get to Sydney, there would be plenty more other places for you to search. Sydney is a big place!!! (not like my little neck of the woods). The 10 pound Pom scheme, I am almost positive, was mainly in the 1950's to 1960's. Though I may stand corrected there. Anyway good luck and please don't hesitate to ask for any more assistance. I know what it's like tracing family. I am up to the stage of finding all my relatives before they came to Australia, and I am stuck big time. Looks like I might need to do the same as you and take a trip to the Mother Country. Best of Luck Jenny

Further to the above if either of you two lovely people could help me on my way with this I should be very grateful.

Jennifer Thanks for all the advice - is there any way that I could check 1918-1922 to see if she married in Australia? I am fairly sure that the Aussie name for her partner was a nickname and my elderly mum can't remember if she ever knew a married name for her aunt. Is there a good site for passenger lists and do you always need to know the name of the ship? I don't know if the 10 scheme was running at the end of the F World War, do you? Failing all that is there any where in Sydney that I could check the above personally? I hope to come over sometime in the next 6 months.

Christine, All Births, Deaths and Marriages in Australia are a State Government thing. I have traced the majority of my Aussie ancestors that way and on the Mormon Website. I know the Victorian Government website has it's index online, at a small cost. Not all the other states have their index online. I agree with Sonja about her partners name, though I tend to lean to it being a nickname. It's very hard to say where she landed, as I have traced my British ancestors landing all over Australia, Fremantle-West Australia, Port Adelaide-South Australia, Moreton Bay-Queensland and Port Phillip Bay-Melbourne. I am talking about the mid 1800's though, so it's hard to say where they came after the war. Have you heard of the "10 pound Pom"? A lot of British emigrants came to Australia in the mid 1900's (mainly 1950-1960's) and were called Ten pound Poms, being it cost them 10 pounds to come over here. I believe a lot of them arrived in Sydney, though I maybe corrected there. Also agree with Sonja that all us Aussies on here would be more than willing to help. I have had a lot of Poms (and I say that with the deepest affection!!) on here more than willing to help me out! Good luck and let's know if need anymore assistance.

Thanks for all your comments and I can see that I shall have to dig a little further. I don't know if she married here or when she arrived in Oz - are there any Australian sites like the British FreeBMD sites. Is registration a state thing or Australia-wide?? Many thanks.

Golly golly gosh Christine! I can't see why she shouldn't be tracked down! There are a truck load of Aussies on EG and it would be my guess that 99.99% of us are not opposed to lending a hand! As for her partners name being Ozzie weeeeelllll .... That could be short for Oswald (or something) or just be a name tag as in short for Australian! See how much info you can dig up to start with! Warm regards Sonja

Christine, Further to Sonja's comments, even if you could find out approximately how old she was when she came here, what was the name of the ship she came over from, or what State in Australia she landed at. All could be of use in searching for her. Jenny

Thanks Sonja, I think that she was unmarried when she went out to Australia so would have had the name Kain (or Cain, Kane. I am told that her partners name was Ossie _ which isn't a lot of help! I understand that she went out after the first world war around 1918 - 1920. Is ther a chance that she could be traced do you think??

You would probably need to have the name she came out here under and at least an approximate date. Perhaps then we might be able to start a search through some old electoral rolls or something? Sonja

Any tips on finding details of MAY KAIN who emigrated to Australia after World War I? I don't know her married name, where she want or exactly when. Any help gratefully received.