Passengers in HistoryAn amazing new resource has just been released for South Australia history and genealogy. Launched on Monday the 25th of January 2016 “Passengers in History” is a welcome addition for anyone with connections to South Australia.

Created by the South Australian Maritime Museum, this website brings together two incredible resources. Firstly the passengers database was produced by volunteers at the South Australian Maritime Museum, over a period of 20 years from the passenger lists held at the State Library of South Australia. These contain entries for over 328,000 passengers on 20,000 voyages to South Australia between 1836 and 1964. And secondly Ian Nicholson’s three volumes of Log of Logs. These volumes are one of the “key” resources when looking for maritime history in Australia. His books (now in database form, and linked in with each relevant voyage) list details of thousands of ships logs, letters and shipboard diaries of voyages that relate to Australia that exist. Currently volume 1 is done, with volume 2 being worked on at present.

Governor of South Australia, Hieu Van Le AO launching the website

Governor of South Australia, Hieu Van Le AO launching the website

Launched by the Governor of of South Australia, Hieu Van Le AO, he gave a stirring speech recalling how he was one of the early boat-people having arrived in Australia from Vietnam back in the 1970s, and how Australia is so multi-cultural that 45% of people are either not born in this country, or have one parent that isn’t. Incredible stats!

The South Australian Maritime Museum has said that the site is far from being ‘finished’. In fact they will not only continue to add to it, but their site also allows users to contribute to the site.

Register on the site, and you can add entries (ships, ports or passengers) to your “account”, as well as being able to add content to it.

It’s early days for the site, and the SA Maritime Museum are after feedback (good or bad) on how people find the site.

You can contact them by any number of ways:
Phone: (08) 8207 6255
Post: 126 Lipson Street, Port Adelaide, South Australia 5015
Email: maritime@history.sa.gov.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SAMaritimeMuseum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SAMaritimeMuseu

http://passengersinhistory.sa.gov.au/