26 September 2007

UK: Inbound immigration records coming online

The records of 18 million UK immigrants will be available online in mid-2008, according to an announcement by Ancestry.co.uk, which detailed that the National Archives granted it a license to digitise, index and house online the UK Inbound Passenger Lists 1878-1960.

The collection is known as the Board of Trade Passenger Lists, Inwards 1878 to 1960 or BT26.

The lists hold the names of 18 million immigrants and tourists who arrived in the UK over nearly a century from destinations outside Europe and the Mediterranean. Some one million pages are organised by port of arrival and may offer the passenger's name, age, occupation, intended UK address, purpose of journey, ship's name, owner and port of origin.

For Jewish researchers, the lists cover major historical immigration waves to the UK.

These lists complement Ancestry’s international passenger list collection, which holds names of 100 million UK and European immigrants who travelled to America between 1820-1960, as well as records for Canada, Australia and Germany.

To read the complete announcement, click here.

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