Bad news–Victorian passenger list images no longer on Ancestry

I’m sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings.

I recently found that I could no longer access images for passenger lists to Victoria, Australia on Ancestry. I asked Ancestry where these images had gone and was advised that "The images were placed on the site by mistake for a couple of days, and were removed afterward".

So, no more Victorian passenger list images.

The Ancestry indexes which remain give a little more information than the free indexes on the PROV website, but not much. Certainly not enough to show which people were travelling as a family group.

I'm not so sure about the "couple of days" claim... I think they may have a funny idea of what a "couple of days" means. I've often been taken to task for using the word "couple" when I mean anything other than two, but I've never used the word to describe a quantity greater than all my fingers and toes together…

The presence of these images was one of the deciding factors when I was considering whether to take out an Ancestry subscription for the first time in late 2010. It's frustrating to know that the digital images exist but I can't see them, even through a paid site. Very disappointing. I hope that whatever arrangements are needed can be worked out and they reappear somewhere soon.

Going on a research trip

My research trip happened a little sooner than expected...

National Library of Australia

My apologies for the poor quality of the photo. I only had my mobile phone with me. The roadworks didn't help much either!

There had been a few changes since I was last there. The most surprising change was the appearance of a little sandwich kiosk in the space outside the newspaper and microform, and maps rooms. The most welcome change was the ability to scan directly from the microform readers and email the image to yourself, all at no cost. This could save me a fortune in photocopy charges!

Actually I didn't email the images to myself, I uploaded them directly to my Dropbox account so they would be waiting for me on my desktop computer when I got home, sitting in the correct folder, with no further effort on my part. Nice. Very, very nice.

Findings
So what did I find? Well, my main aim was to see the passenger list for Richard ROBOTHAM. I recently wrote about how I found him in the passenger list index. The ship was the "Red Jacket", travelling from Liverpool to Melbourne from January to April 1860. Onboard were 338 adult passengers and 49 children. From a quick scan of the list, Richard ROBOTHAM was one of the oldest passengers, at the advanced age of 41. Most were in their 20s.

I was hoping for some detail that would let me know if this Richard ROBOTHAM was "mine". Sadly for me, there was no additional telling detail beyond the basic demographics they recorded for unassisted passengers (ie those who were paying their own way).

On the other hand, there were some minor inconsistencies with what I know of "my" Richard ROBOTHAM. The Richard in the passenger list was listed as single but my Richard was married. However, as he was travelling on his own I don't expect that they took down that information very carefully. He was also listed as travelling to Auckland, but it seems feasible to me that he could have changed his mind during the 3 month voyage, and decided to stay in Melboune.

What a pity there's just nothing to tell me for sure that I've got the right man. I'll just have to put it down as a maybe for now.

I did a few more quick searches before I went home, where I found an unexpected visitor waiting for me...


He listened patiently while I told him about my research trip, then wandered off again.