The Public Record Office Victoria has just extended its online index to passengers leaving Victoria up to 1901. The Index to Outward Passengers to Interstate, U.K. and Foreign Ports, 1852-1901 as it is known, provides family historians with a fascinating opportunity to learn more about their ancestors who left Victoria and their destination. Eventually, this index will extend up to 1923 and match the terrific indexes to inward passengers that are already available on the PROV website.

Professor Geoffrey Blainey talked about the extraordinary number of people who left Victoria in the 1890s and early 1900s due to depression and drought, in this year’s Don Grant lecture. If your ancestor disappears from the usual records around this time then be sure to check the index to outward passengers – you may well find them there. You can watch a video of Professor Blainey’s engaging lecture to learn exactly what this eminent historian had to say about everyday life in nineteenth century Victoria.

Further information about the updated outward passenger index is available in the October 2010 edition of the PROV’s Despatch newsletter.