State Library Victoria

Your ancestor’s world – 19th century Victoria

August 1, 2023

Welcome to National Family History month, a month dedicated to family history research!
Alongside your family history explorations, local and social history research can help us to understand something of the motivations, places, lives and times of our Victorian ancestors. In this week’s blog we include few snapshots from our collections and beyond, to help you build a picture of the journeys undertaken and of the Victoria your ancestors may have inhabited in the nineteenth century.

The gateway to Melbourne: Station Pier

June 9, 2023

Ask a librarian, Our stories, Victorian history:

With the dominance of air travel in the twenty-first century, it’s easy to forget what a massive role ships, ports and piers played in the development and history of Melbourne. We look at the historic evolution of piers at the Port of Melbourne.

When the boat comes in: voyages to Victoria

August 8, 2022

Family matters, Research guides, Research tips & tricks:

Welcome to National Family History Month! Each week of August we will publish a new family history blog to help you with your research. In this week’s blog we look at how to research your ancestor’s journey to Victoria. We explore immigration records, shipboard diaries and how to track down an elusive ancestor.

The Australian Joint Copying Project and family history research

May 30, 2022

Family matters, Research guides:

Explore these primary source documents for your family history research.

Victorian CEDT Index : a new family history resource for Chinese Victorians

March 23, 2022

Family matters, Research tips & tricks:

In 2021 the Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria Inc. (CAFHOV) launched a fascinating new resource, the Victorian CEDT index. This online resource indexes three registers of applications for Certificates Exempting from Dictation Test (CEDT), covering the years 1904-1959. Over 90% of the people listed were Chinese, however people with Indian, Japanese or Syrian ancestry are also included.

To the land of Hope! Mid 19th century voyages from the UK to Victoria.

September 2, 2020

Family matters:

Explores some often overlooked aspects of the migrant’s journey, including their motivation for emigrating, making preparations, leaving home for the last time, arriving at the port of departure, the voyage and life on board the ship.

The voyage of the Hercules

August 12, 2020

Family matters:

In the 19th century the voyage to Australia was long and arduous. Emigrants faced the constant threat of disease and malnutrition, the danger of storms or shipwrecks, and the possibility… Read More ›

Liverpool to Melbourne: the newspaper

May 7, 2019

People & professions, Such was life:

During her 1854 voyage to Melbourne, the ‘Marco Polo’ published a weekly newspaper for passengers- which provides a vivid description to life on board.

New Gold Mountain

January 29, 2019

Our stories, People & professions:

For the Chinese immigrants who flocked to Victorian goldfields in the 1850s, the journey began in Canton or Hong Kong and included several months at sea before arriving in Victoria, or ‘New Gold Mountain’.

Group of men playing volleyball, tents in the Bonegilla Migrant Hostel

A nation of immigrants

January 2, 2019

Our stories:

Learn about the history of immigration in Australia, from the First Fleet and the Gold Rush to WWI and the White Australia policy.

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