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Disembarking at Cape Town, 1902; COPY 1/455; © Ismay Imrie&Co

Disembarking at Cape Town, 1902; COPY 1/455; © Ismay Imrie&Co

Passenger lists and other migration records

The following resources may help you to trace ancestors who left or came to the United Kingdom.


Inward-bound passengers

You can search incoming passenger lists for people arriving in the United Kingdom from foreign ports outside of Europe and the Mediterranean. The passenger lists cover 1878 to 1960 and may include: name of passenger, their birth date or age, port of departure, port of arrival, date of arrival and vessel name.

The records were made available online by our partner, ancestry.co.uk. It is free to search the website, but there is a charge for viewing the full entry and downloading images of the passenger lists. 

Selected images may be viewed free of charge on our Moving Here website.

Outward-bound passengers

You can search the outward-bound passenger lists for people leaving ports in the United Kingdom and Ireland at AncestorsOnBoard.com. The lists cover 1890 to 1960 and show passengers for long-distance destinations, including Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States of America.

The records were made available online by our partner, findmypast.com. It is free to search the website, but there is a charge for downloading images of the passenger lists.

Moving Here

The Moving Here website explores immigration to England over the last 200 years, particularly the migration of Caribbean, South-Asian, Irish and Jewish communities.

  • See documents and photographs

  • Get advice on tracing your family history

  • Read people's personal experiences of migration and add your own story.

 

Research guides

You will also find more information in our relevant research guides. The guides tell you how to find records related to a particular topic and give you the all important catalogue references that you need to order original documents: