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Australia - three members emigrated

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  • Australia - three members emigrated

    In 1955 they were on the emigration shipping list, as well as the 1960, would they have earned enough money for all three to return to England and return in 1960? They only had it, appears ordinary jobs.
    Last edited by James; 07-07-08, 08:36.

  • #2
    James...I can't really answer your question, but I think they may have been able to.

    If they came over as "10 pound poms"....they had to work here for 2 years or repay the full cost of their passage here.

    There were over one million people who came here on the scheme (which included other countries as well as England). About 250,000 returned to England after their two years were up, however over half of those returned here after reassessing England.
    They became known as "boomerang poms" .

    So I presume the average person could find a way to pay their fare home.

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    • #3
      That's interesting, Libby - I remember when all those people emigrated, but I didn't realise so many had returned so soon.

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      • #4
        James

        I had a friend who married in England and emigrated to Australia with husband and one child around 1959 on a £10 ticket, and then returned to the UK with husband and two children about 1963 at their expense, only to return to Australia for good around 1965, again at their expense because they could not get a second £10 ticket! They only had very ordinary jobs, one a teacher. They genuinely could not make up their mind as to whether to stay or not. I know my friend got homesick the first few years she was out there, and this happened more than we realise. Her husband died recently, and when over in the UK to visit just recently she became even more nostalgic to return to the UK but now her children and grandchildren are Australians, so dilemma for her. Remember back in the 1960's to go to Australia/New Zealand was final. Phoning was too expensive so the only way to communicate was by letter which took about one week to get there and one week to return so homesickness was a very real fear. Nowadays you can have a link up to video and telephoning is now so cheap in comparison and E mails will get there the same day so you can chat by text/e mail or phone, a very different world. To us back in the 1950's and 1960's Australia was the end of the world, quite literally. God knows what people must have felt back in the 1800's!

        Janet
        Last edited by Janet; 07-07-08, 11:20.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Janet View Post
          James

          Remember back in the 1960's to go to Australia/New Zealand was final.
          My mum went out as a war bride in 1945 (at the government's expense, I believe), when it was even more final than in the 1960s. The voyage took 6 weeks, and she expected never to see her family again. She was so homesick that they eventually moved back to the UK in 1948, just before I was born. No idea how they paid for the ticket back.

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          • #6
            However, many of my ancestors emigrated on assisted passages in the mid-1800s, and two families did return to England, so it must have been feasible even in those days.

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            • #7
              Certainly post WW2, wages in Australia were far better than in the UK. those who came back to the UK usually did so because of homesickness, or sometimes because of the awful conditions in the placement camps.

              I saw a documentary a while ago, where a woman and her family came back to the UK because she just couldn't stand the flies on the land they had been given!

              OC

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              • #8
                There would have been really only three reasons for coming here in the 1700/1800s.
                Either you were sent as a convict, you came out almost as a refugee (as the Irish or Scottish after the clearings) or you came because you wanted to, and could afford it.

                The last lot could come and go as they wished sometimes sending children back to England for school.

                The convicts either made very good and wouldn't have gone back or escaped and we don't know what happened to them.

                Those who came just to make a better life often found it, and if they didn't, they couldn't have afforded to return. If they did, they'd have had nowhere to call home anyway.

                Sorry James, I think I've hijacked your thread.

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                • #9
                  My Chandler and Holledge ancestors from Kent went out on assisted passages in the 1850s and 1860s, and I get the impression that they didn't have much money - in fact I assumed they emigrated because of poverty in Kent. They were mainly ag labs, and one gamekeeper. Loads of them went out, and only two families came back.

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                  • #10
                    Libby - another reason (a distant rellie of mine) - sent to Australia as a missionary to put the fear of God into the great unwashed. In this case he was Church of Scotland. He married just before he sailed, had 3 children in Australia and then died. His widow and children then returned to Scotland.
                    Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                    • #11
                      Libby

                      I did smile at your remark and I have a convict to Australia back in the
                      1830's. However, I was thinking of the later 1800's when many people did go to Australia under their own steam, quite willingly, going after the gold rush. My OH had a relative who went out to Mossman in Queensland and when I was there in 2000 this area was still pretty uninhabited outside of the town, so what was it like to live there in 1890? And getting back to Ireland at that time was well nigh impossible. I had forgotten the 6 week voyage as I used to write to a penfriend in Adelaide and I could not afford to send him airmail letters back in the early 1950's so sent only sea letters, which took six weeks to get to him and a reply back was 6 weeks. No wonder we thought that it was the end of the world. Later in the 1950's I could afford to send him airmail letters and he sent me airmail letters, so it was much quicker at only a week each time.

                      Janet

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                      • #12
                        Yesterday I found my uncle (paternal) in the "Find My Past" passenger lists. He was always a bit of a mystery, but there he was age 35 sailed on the R.M.S "Ormonde" (don't know what R.M.S means), to Melbourne. He was listed as a "Mail Sorter" and my grandad and my dad both worked for the Post Office. I have been trying all day to find a good site in Melbourne to try to find out what happened to him after he arrived in Melbourne. Can anyone help me with good sites? Thanks a million. Val

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                        • #13
                          RMS is Royal Mail Ship

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                          • #14
                            This is the Victoria BMD site:

                            Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages - Index Search - Historical Index Search Form

                            It has:
                            births (1853 to 1907)
                            marriages (1853 to 1942)
                            deaths (1853 to 1985)

                            If he served in either of the world wars you should find his details here:

                            RecordSearch - National Archives of Australia

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                            • #15
                              Hi Val a useful site

                              necropolis.net.au - Welcome to Necropolis

                              I found three relatives in it

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                              • #16
                                Thank you Merry Monty, Royal Mail Ship, that is interesting to know as he was listed as a passenger as a Mail Sorter!
                                Also, thank you James I will try the site you recommended.
                                I can't believe I'm getting on so well now with what yesterday was a mystery! Many thanks to Libby as well. Thanks all of you. I love this site!!
                                Val

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                                • #17
                                  Check your emails Val.

                                  Good Luck.

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                                  • #18
                                    Thank you Mary, I am going to check out that site tonight. Thanks also to Libby, I may possibly have found my cousin - am going to write to him! My daughter and grandson say there is a resemblance to me in that picture of him that you sent me!! Keep your fingers crossed. I will let you know!
                                    Val

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                                    • #19
                                      Great Val................good idea to write.

                                      Just remember...the address I sent may not be for the person in the photo, although I don't think that is a big town.

                                      Let us know how you get on.

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