New South Wales, Australia 1828 - 1842: Bounty Immigrants List

Source Information

Reakes, J., comp. New South Wales, Australia 1828 - 1842: Bounty Immigrants List [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003.
Original data: Bounty Immigrants to New South Wales 1828 - 1842. Records kept at the New South Wales State Records Office, P.O. Box 516, Kingswood, NSW 2747; at the Archives Office of Tasmania, 77 Murray St., Hobart, TAS 7000; and at the State Records Office of Western Australia, Alexander Library, Perth Cultural Centre, Perth, WA 6000.

About New South Wales, Australia 1828 - 1842: Bounty Immigrants List

The NSW Government encouraged people to migrate to Australia to help colonize the country. Immigrants from the British Isles were initially sought, and a bounty reward system was set up to help entice people to migrate. Details from the family records include name of immigrant, his or her parents' names, occupation, age or birthdate, birthplace, relatives with them, employer, comments, and name of ship.

This forms the core of the information to do with early shipping records. 1844-1896 is already on the NET but employees at the State Archives are delighted to hear of this index, because they do not have the means to do it themselves.

The immigrants come from Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales, and they total approximately 89,000. A card index which contains some errors of birthplaces and names exists, but as it was done many years ago it is also very hard to read due to blotching of the print. Also, some data is also missing from the original.

This index will complete the NSW Immigration series on the NET. NSW was the first state in Australia, founded in 1788. Prior to 1828 there was no organized Assisted Immigration Programme.