Decisions

Success!

Liverpool

Birkenhead

Setting sail

Illustrations by
Tracy Worrall

Leaving from Liverpool

Things to Do

Find out more about emigration to the New World through books, websites, documents, archives and museums listed below.

Fiction

T'is
by Frank McCourt, London, Flamingo, 1999.

The Cast Iron Shore
by Linda Grant, London, Picador, 1996

The Emigrants
by WG Sebald, translated by Michael Hulse, London, Harvill Press, 1996.

Under the Hawthorn Tree
by Marita Conlon-McKenna, Dublin, O'Brien Press Ltd, 1990.

Wildflower Girl
by Marita Conlon-McKenna, Dublin, O'Brien Press Ltd, 1991.

Fields of Home
by Marita Conlon McKenna, Dublin: O'Brien Press Ltd, 1996.

Real Lace - America's Irish Rich
by Stephen Birmingham, New York, Berkley Books, 1973.

A Doctor in the West
by Morris Gibson, London, Pan Books, 1983.

Homeland
by John Jakes, Warner Books, 1993.

Non - fiction

The Little Immigrants: The Orphans Who Came to Canada
by Kenneth Bagnall, Toronto, Macmillan, 1980.

Passage to America
by Terry Coleman, London: Hutchinson, 1972.

Orphans of the Shocking Story of Child Emigration to Australia
by Alan Gill, Milsons Point, N.S.W: Vintage, 1998.

The Atlantic Crossing by
M Maddocks, Alexandria, U.S.A: Time-Life, 1981.

Emigration - a Bibliography of Works in the English Language held by the Maritime Archives and Library
by Helen Threlfall, Liverpool, NMGM, 1996.

American Passenger Arrival Records
by M Tepper, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1988.

Fairbridge, Empire and Child Emigration,
by Geoffrey Sherington and Chris Jeffery, London, Woburn Press, 1998.

The Passage Makers
by MK Stammers, Brighton, Teredo Press, 1978.

Websites

Each of the links below will open in a new browser window.

www.familyrecords.gov.uk/topics/emigration.htm
A feature on emigration from the Family Records Consortium, which aims to help people with their family research.

www.nmm.ac.uk/searchbin/searchs.pl?theme=me0003a&axis=allThemes&flash=true&dev=
From the National Maritime Museum, a site which explores the theme of passengers, exploring the different reasons people travel by sea, including emigration.

proni.nics.gov.uk/EXODUS/EMIGRATION/
A website dedicated to Irish emigration from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

www.ellisislandrecords.org
Details about the American Family Immigration Centre at Ellis Island.

www.anmm.gov.au/ww/ww.htm
Australian National Maritime Museum Welcome Wall.

www.childmigrants.com
This site features information and support about and for children removed from Britain and transported to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The websites of Barnado's [www.barnados.org.uk], Catholic Children's Society [www.cathchild.org.uk] and National Children's Homes [www.nch.org.uk] may also be useful.

www.immigrantships.net
The Immigrant Transcribers Guild (USA) has transcribed a number of British ships' passenger lists.

www.theshiplist.com
This useful website holds information on passenger lists, fleet lists and ship arrivals.

Documents

The Martime Archives and Library at the Merseyside Maritime Museum has several original documents relating to emigration through Liverpool. The following are refered to in this site:

John Hedges' diary, reference code DX/243

Practical Hints for Emigrants to our Australian Colonies by John Willox: ref code DX/507

John Beakbane's letters to his aunt, re code D/B/102/AD/8 & 16

The Emigrant Voyager's Manual by William HG Kingston, 1850 - this item belongs to the British Library but a facsimile can be seen at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Museums and exhibitions

Merseyside Maritime Museum
An Emigrant's Tale at the Merseyside Maritime Museum explores the history of emigration from the port of Liverpool.

Merseyside Maritime Museum
Albert Dock
Liverpool
England
L3
Tel: 0151 478 4399
www.merseysidemaritimemuseum.org.uk [opens in new window]

The museum's Maritime Archives & Library [opens in new window] holds a number of items which help tell the emigration story from Liverpool. These items include original emigrant diaires, letters and photographs. Maritime Archives & Library have produced the following information sheets to help researchers of emigration history.

Official records of passengers on board ship in Britain (.rtf, 437kb)
Emigration to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (.rtf, 435kb)
Emigration to USA and Canada (.rtf, 460kb)
Child emigration (.rtf, 449kb)
Mormon emigration (.rtf, 412kb)

National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum's Passengers display records the history of travelling by sea, in particular mass migration from the British Isles in the 19th century.

National Maritime Museum
Romney Road
Greenwich
London
England
SE10 9NF
Tel: 0208 858 4422
www.nmm.ac.uk [opens in new window]

Ulster American Folk Park
The Ulster American Folk Park is an open-air museum that tells the story of 200 years of emigration to America.

Ulster American Folk Park
Mellon Road
Castletown
Omagh
BT78 5QY
Tyrone
Northern Ireland
Tel: 028 8225 6315
CentreMigStudies@ni-libraries.net
www.folkpark.com [opens in new window]

Immigration Museum Australia
Melbourne's Immigration Museum explores stories of people from all over the world who have migrated to Victoria from the 1800s.

Immigration Museum
Old Customs House
400 Flinders Street
Melbourne
Australia
Tel: 00 11 61 03 9927 2700
immigration.museum.vic.gov.au [opens in new window]

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Illustrations by Tracy Worrall