There is a long history of immigration to the United Kingdom. People have chosen to move here for many reasons including work prospects, escaping persecution in their home country, evading the law and to join family and friends. When a person has immigrated to the United Kingdom there are a variety of records for a genealogist to peruse. You may discover an ancestor has left behind photographs, letters and diaries from their travels which may be retained within the family or local archives. Other records are available online and via archives.
Passenger listsPassenger lists
Most surviving passenger lists refer to journeys that took place outside of Europe, such as ships travelling between the United Kingdom and the United States of America or Australia. Records featuring people who travelled to the United Kingdom from abroad are referred to as inbound or inward records. Many inbound passenger lists are held at The National Archives in Series BT 26 for the years 1890-1960 (with some earlier surviving examples) and BT 32 for 1906-1951. You may also find some passengers listed in newspaper articles.
Passenger lists were not standardised until later in the twentieth century, so the requested information found on each list will differ. The usual given information includes the passenger's name, marital status, nationality and the class within which they travelled. Ship information is also supplied including the ship's name, Master's name, the date that the ship set sail and the port it departed from and where it is headed. Extra information may include the passenger’s age, place of birth, their occupation, the name of a friend or relative and their final destination. If a family are travelling together their relationship to each other is not usually noted.
You can find some passenger lists online, including the collections Transatlantic Migration, North America to Britain and Ireland, 1858 - 1870 on MyHeritage. This has over 42,000 records.
UK naturalisation recordsUK naturalisation records
If your ancestor arrived in the UK from overseas and was awarded British citizenship you may be able to find their naturalisation records. Prior to 1844, naturalisation could be issued by Parliament as a private Act of naturalisation or granted by the Crown by letters of denizen[1]. The Home Office granted naturalisation after 1844.
A majority of surviving records relating to denization are held at The National Archives, including grants of denization dating 1400-1844, petitions dating prior to 1800 and some original letters patent of denization. Most of the records that survive for naturalisation are also held at The National Archives. These records include copies of certificates of naturalisation, petitions and nominal lists of people granted British nationality. The transcriptions of over 400,000 naturalisation and denization papers dating from 1801 onwards can be viewed in the United Kingdom, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations collection on MyHeritage.
A majority of unsuccessful applications were destroyed. You are unlikely to find a Catholic or Jewish ancestor in naturalisation records as, due to their beliefs, they were unable to swear the oaths of allegiance and supremacy that were required as part of gaining naturalisation. They used the alternative method of denization.
Registers and returns of aliensRegisters and returns of aliens
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Those residing in the United Kingdom of a foreign origin were referred to aliens. Upon their arrival into the country, registers were taken of aliens details and a certificate was provided to the immigrant. Two further copies of the certificate were created; one was given to the Justice of the Peace in the local area and the other was held by the Aliens Office in London. You may discover that a person's certificate has not survived but they should still appear in an index.
There are 600 alien registration cards for the years 1918-1957 available to download from The National Archives website. These are the cards with the aliens details on that were then used to create a certificate. A photograph of the immigrant is usually included. Local archives sometimes hold various records relating to aliens.
Other recordsOther records
You may discover that your ancestor was born overseas in a range of sources. Their country of origin may be given in a census, written in a settlement examination or provided in a newspaper article amongst other examples. When you have confirmed a person's home country, seek genealogical records held there that relate to your forebear to discover more about them.
See alsoSee also
Explore more about UK immigration recordsExplore more about UK immigration records
- United Kingdom, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarationsrecord collection at MyHeritage
- Using MyHeritage DNA to Determine Immigrant Originsat Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Discovering Immigration Stories from Both Sides of the Pondat Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Discovering Immigration Stories with MyHeritageat Legacy Family Tree Webinars
References
- ↑ "Historical background information on nationality (accessible)". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2024-09-23.