Find your ancestors in Queensland Customs House Shipping 1852-1885: Passengers and Crew

What can these records tell me?

There are over 107,000 entries in this collection of passengers and crew from some 485 inward ship voyages spanning the years 1852 to 1885. The collection was sourced from the Collector of Customs (Brisbane) records held at the National Archives of Australia, Brisbane (Shipping Inwards Series J715).

The amount of information available will vary from record to record, but most will include a combination of the following fields:

  • First name(s)
  • Last name
  • Title – e.g. Mrs., Dr., Hon., Rev., Capt., etc.
  • Sex
  • Status – married or single
  • Age – this can be a specific age or a comment such as adult, child, infant, or above 14y
  • Birth year - estimated from the age available in the original record
  • Nationality
  • Occupation – many different abbreviations are used in this field
  • Passenger or crew
  • Ship name
  • Ship’s master
  • Ship’s departure port
  • Departure date
  • Arrival year
  • Arrival date
  • Arrival port
  • Comments
  • List type – departure, arrival, or other
  • State
  • Country

While the series is noted as pertaining to inwards lists, there are a few outwards lists included. Most ships would include two separate lists: one would be created at the time of departure and one at the time of arrival.

The following departure ports are included in this index: Batavia, Boston, Dundee, Glasgow, Greenock, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Liverpool, London, New York, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Plymouth, Queenstown, Singapore, San Francisco, Sydney, the South Sea Islands, and Southampton.

Explanatory notes
  • Names and occupations are abbreviated as recorded on the original lists.
  • The inclusion of a question mark (?) means there was uncertainty in deciphering the original text.
  • As much as possible, all text has been transcribed exactly as it was recorded on the original lists.
  • Variant readings of a name are noted in the Comments field.

Data supplied by Queensland Family History Society Inc.