Genealogy Chat

I have found from records one of my relatives emigrated to Australia in about 1880. Can anyone help with tips to find any details?

Do you know which State your relative went to?

Try:

Cyndislists.com loads of links to Australia, ships passenger lists

http://www.familyhistorysa.info/

http://naa12.naa.gov.au/ Australian national archives, log in as a guest and you have the option of searching the whole archive, a name search, passenger lists, military records, convicts - Australians are very proud of them!

Australian BMD can be a nightmare. Each state has its own system for searching but there is little on-line searching.

I wouldn't call Australian BMD a nightmare. NSW is brilliant, and their certs are far better than English ones. Vic, WA and Qld also have quite a bit online, though not as much as NSW.

Diana's just sent me a PM to say she doesn't know which State her ancestor went to. I've suggested she replies on the thread in future.

Diana, if you'd like to post your ancestor's name here, we can try having a look for you. We also need to know as much of the following information as possible: data and place of birth, parents' names, and when and where he was last heard of in England (e.g. on a census).

Mary
Thanks for your reply.
The ancestor I am looking for left for Australia approx 1884. He was Frederick Parsons Menzies born 1852 in Burnage Lancashire. Parents names William Menzies and Elizabeth Watson. The last entry on the census was 1881 aged 28 living in Heaton Norris Lancashire.
I would be interested to know anything about his life in Australia.
Thanks Diana

You're in luck, he went to NSW, which has good records.

You can find the BMD records here:

http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/Index/IndexingOrder.cgi/search?event=births

As you'll see, he married a Mary A Stafford in 1888, and died in 1935. They had 3 children, but I'll leave you the pleasure of finding them :-)

His two sons both fought in WW1.

You can find their complete service records online here:

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/recordsearch.aspx

Thanks . Thats great news.
Diana

Ancestry has two electoral rolls online for NSW: 1930 and 1936.

In 1930, Frederick Parsons Menzies was living at Rutlands, 38 Victoria Street, Burwood, Sydney. His occupation's a bit faint, but it looks like "mgr", so I assume he was a manager of some kind.

Other people with the surname Menzies living at the same address were:
Dulcie Emily Menzies, home duties
Ella Katherine Menzies, h.d.
Mary Ann Menzies, home duties
Thomas Keith Menzies, auctioneer.

The electoral roll doesn't give ages, but you had to be over 21 to be on it. There may have been other people at the same address, but it's only indexed by surname, not by address.

You'll be able to find quite a bit of information about the family on the electoral rolls.

It's a bit of a long job to search for and transcribe it all, so you might do well to get a 14-day free trial to ancestry.com.au. You need what they call the "UK Heritage" subscription, which includes English and Australian records.

You'll probably find the family in Sands Directory too, also available on ancestry.com.au

By the way, as I said earlier, Australian certs are very good. Marriage and death certs normally contain the names and occupations of both parents, and death certs should have the names of all the deceased's wives and children.

You can order certs direct from the NSW index I linked to earlier, but you can get transcriptions for about half the price from an authorised transcription agent:

http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/howToSearch.htm

For deaths after 1977, when the deaths index ends, try the newspaper death notices here:

http://www.ryersonindex.org/

Frederick's son Eric died in WW1:

http://www.awm.gov.au/roh/person.asp?p=145-37876
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=406088

Hi Marry
Thanks for all the info you have given me . It will keep me occupied for ages.
I have looked up the first references you sent and its all very interesting - I have found a whole lot more relatives thanks to you.
Diana