Ancestry.co.uk has launched online the most comprehensive UK immigration collection in existence.
The UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960, details the arrival of more than 18 million men, women and children to the UK, often after perilous sea voyages, during the twilight years of the British Empire.
The collection, digitised in partnership with The National Archives, contains records for immigrants, returning ex-pats and their descendents, tourists and business travellers who arrived in the UK throughout much of the 19th and 20th Centuries before commercial flights became the norm.
Mass migration to the UK throughout this 80-year period, during which its population doubled from 24.5 to 52 million people, was in response to British colonies achieving independence.
Those arriving in the UK did so under British Nationality Law - coming in their millions in search of prosperity and employment. As a result they shaped an ethnically diverse Britain.
Ironically, at the same time millions of Brits were emigrating to ‘new world’ countries such as the US, Canada and Australia, which further highlights the significant impact those names included in this collection had on Britain’s population growth.
Among the immigration histories listed in the collection are:
- South East Asians, and particularly Indians and Pakistanis, who began to arrive in the UK in large numbers after India and Pakistan were granted independence in 1947. More than 60,000 Indians had arrived by 1955
- Afro-Caribbean immigrants first arrived in the UK when in June 1948 the Empire Windrush docked in London from Jamaica. Its arrival became an important historical landmark, heralding the beginning of mass Afro-Caribbean immigration to Britain
- The Chinese population in Britain rose significantly in the 1950s, coinciding with increased population pressure in Hong Kong, then under British rule. This was the result of an influx of refugees to Hong Kong from the mainland following the end of the Chinese Civil War, encouraging many to seize the opportunity to move to the UK
- The former British Dominions of Canada, Australia and South Africa also saw millions of former emigrants or their descendants return to Britain from the turn of the 20th Century onwards as these countries set up independent governments, and also to support the UK during two world wars
These millions of immigrants went on to shape modern Britain and their descendants to become part of its first multicultural generation.
The collection finishes in 1960 when the development of commercial flight made aircraft the preferred mode of international transport. Britain saw the first mass immigration by air in 1972 when Idi Amin, President of Uganda, expelled over 60,000 Gujarati Indians.
Individual records include information such as passenger’s name, age, occupation, Port of departure and origin and intended address in the UK. They are a hugely valuable tool to anyone trying to trace their family’s global movements and provide a unique insight into immigration patterns at a time of great change and upheaval in the life of the British Empire.
The collection also reveals information on tourists and those returning to the UK during the golden age of maritime travel. Famous names that appear include Sir Winston Churchill, Roger Moore, Elizabeth Taylor and Ronald Reagan.
The UK Inbound Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 is an important addition to Ancestry’s already comprehensive international collection of passenger lists, which includes the names of 100 million UK and European immigrants who travelled to America between 1820 and 1960, and also a variety of immigration and emigration records for Canada, Australia and Germany.
Senior vice president at Ancestry International, Josh Hanna said: "These records are a vital resource for anyone tracing their family’s movements to the UK from around the world and collectively reflect a period of huge economic and social change for Britain and its colonies during the twilight days of the British Empire.
"This collection documents the creation of a new, multicultural Britain, which challenges traditional notions of what it is to ‘be British’ by providing UK family history enthusiasts with an opportunity to explore both the recent British and distant foreign origins of their ancestors."
Head of Records Knowledge at The National Archives, Roger Kershaw added: "The partnership between The National Archives and Ancestry.co.uk has allowed us to digitise and publish online, what is in our opinion, one of the most significant record collections in British immigration history."
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