Search UK outbound passenger lists

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About the BT27 Passenger Lists - An overview
The first BT27 passenger lists go live online at www.ancestorsonboard.com in January 2007. These lists hold the details of the hundreds of thousands of British migrants who left the UK between 1890 and 1899 for new lives in the four corners of the British Empire.

"Britain is a nation of emigrants, not of immigrants. Since the middle ages people have spread to all the corners of the globe; the country’s dominant migration trend has seen people move abroad, rather than to receive them from overseas. The balance did not change until the early 1980s."


The fully digitised passenger lists will expand over the first six months of 2007 building a comprehensive database of all passengers on ships departing the UK on long-haul voyages to destinations outside Britain and Europe in the period 1890 - 1960.


While countries such as Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and USA feature strongly, all continents are covered and it is possible to find passengers on ships sailing to South America, the Caribbean, West Africa and all parts of Asia. These voyages often called en route at additional ports, including those in Europe, and any passengers disembarking at these stops are included.

Voyages from all ports in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and from all Irish ports before partition in 1921, and all Northern Irish ports after partition, are covered in the UK passenger lists.


What does BT27 stand for?
'BT' refers to the Board of Trade (the precursor of the modern-day Department of Trade & Industry) which from 1786 to 1970 set policy and regulated trade with Britain, its colonies and the rest of the world. '27' simply refers to the series or shelf number at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew, London, where the original documents are held.

Currently, documents are only available to view at The National Archives in Kew. They are indexed by UK port of departure and by date of departure, but not by name. This means that it is almost impossible to find a particular individual unless you already know exactly when they travelled and from which port. Current estimates suggest there are approximately 24 million passengers in BT27 but the final figure will only become clear once the digitisation and transcription of all the records has been completed.


About the Passenger List Documents
It has taken a 125-strong full-time team nearly a year to complete the process of digitising the 1.5 million original documents.

These UK records contain:

Migration in the Period 1890 - 1899
Peak emigration from the British Isles was reached in the last years of the 19th century. An estimated 125,000 British people emigrated to the USA, 50,000 to Canada and 25,000 to Australia every year between 1890 and 1914. Migration to South Africa was also high in this period before the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899. After WW1 emigration continued but became increasingly controlled and often had a changed emphasis: for instance, Australia became a more and more popular destination.


Famous faces - Records of historical figures


Marcus Garvey
Sailed: Southampton to Jamaica on 17th June 1914 on the Royal Mail Steamship Co's Trent; travelled 3rd class; occupation described as a 27 year old journalist. Born in Jamaica in 1887, Garvey was an influential Black nationalist and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.


Noel Coward
Sailed: Southampton to New York on 20th February 1924 on the White Star’s Olympic; travelled 1st class; occupation described as a 24 year old actor intending to return to England.


Matthew Busby and Manchester United
Sailed: To New York on 2nd May 1950; occupation described as Football Manager; travelling for a friendly match in the United States.


Harry Houdini
Sailed: To New York on 3rd July 1920 on the Imperator; occupation described as an actor.


Charlie Chaplin
Sailed: To New York on 9th September 1921 on the Olympic; occupation described as an actor.


Max Factor
Sailed: To New York on 11th June 1953 on the Queen Elizabeth; occupation described as ‘Cosmetics’.


Jack McAuliffe
Sailed: To New York on 11th March 1922 on the Aquitania; occupation described as Boxer. Irish boxer Jack McAuliffe was known as the ‘Napoleon of the prize ring’ and fought a 72-round battle for the World Champion title in 1887. McAuliffe died in Brooklyn in 1937 and has since been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995.


Setting sail for new shores


Britons Returning to Iraq post-World War I
Messrs Walker, Batley, Williams & Reed all set sail from Leith to "Busra, Mesopotamia", today's Basra, Iraq, on 20th March 1919 on the Frankenfels courtesy of the Admiralty. This ship was one of Hansa Line's vessels, which was seized by the British during WW1 and the ship's records also include comments that the four men had been interned by the Turks during the Great War.


Migrating to New Zealand on the RMS Remuera
Miss Barbara Clark (prison officer, 27, of Aylesbury), John Woodrow (rabbit catcher, 21, of Lighthorne, Warwickshire), 40-year old Glaswegian dairymaid Miss Elizabeth Barr, and Rufus Workman (33-year old fireman of London N15) all travelled to New Zealand to start a new life on this New Zealand Shipping Co's steamship in 1923.


The Arabic Tragedy
This White Star Liner ship was torpedoed and sunk by a U-24 close to the coast of Ireland in 1915 during the First World War. 390 of the ship's passengers survived and 44 perished in the tragedy.


Great War - War Brides & Babies
Women and children sailing from Glasgow to Quebec & Montreal on 12th September 1919 on the Allan Line’s Corsican are described in the records as "Canadian Military Dependents", with each woman described as a "Hwife" i.e. housewife, and the children are mostly under the age of 1 year.


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A journey of discovery
A journey of discovery