Ancestors on Board - the blog

Have you seen the series of blog postings by Stephen Rigden at the new Ancestors on Board web site? These little essays help you find out more about some of the features and quirks of the indexed BT27 outward-bound-from-the-UK passenger lists at Ancestors on Board.

In case you missed the announcement of this major new database, the site covers long-distance voyages made from all British ports between 1890 and 1960. The data now available are from 1890 to 1899. Whether destined for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda or anywhere else under the never setting sun over the British Empire, your travelling ancestors of the period should be there. That's also true of passengers destined for rebellious former colonies or to corners of the world so deprived that there residents never had the privilege of living as British Subjects.

I'm anticipating the next batch covering the second decade 1900-1909 "to be published shortly." Rigden mentions in a recent posting a relatives found in this period bound for Quebec. That Rigden family may be found in the 1911 Canadian census in Vancouver. People by that name still live in BC today as well as elsewhere in Canada.