recording births on ships

[DixieFamily]

Hi
If a child was born en route to Australia, was the birth recorded when they arrived? And if so, was it a requirement of the Capt or the parents? And does the record reflect that the child was born on the ship? (Enquiring about a birth in 1840 on a ship from England to Australia).
Any assistance on this issue would be appreciated.

thanks

[Yonks Ago]

Hi DixieChickPerth,

Im not sure but you may find an answer in this link..

http://www.nla.gov.au/app/eresources/browse/130

cheers
yonks

[Christine53]

This may help :

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/bmdatseaorabroad.htm

[Treetotal]

This might help too:

http://www.theshipslist.com/Forms/BMD.shtml

Carol

[Beth42]

Hi DixieChickPerth
My great grandmother's sister was born on the voyage to Australia on the Bussorah Merchant which arrived in Sydney 19 Mar 1853. On the Shipping List it is noted that the child was an infant and "born on the voyage". The family remained in Sydney for some months but on 5 Jan 1854 the birth was registered at Register Office Melbourne and in the first column of the certificate -
- When and Where Born: Seventeenth January 1853 on board the Barque Bussorah Merchant.
So in this case it was the parents who were responsible for the registration even they chose to wait for nine months until they were living in Melbourne.

[DixieFamily]

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply.  I will follow up on the leads.
regards

[Dundee]

There was no civil registration of births in 1840 except for Tasmania.

NSW/Qld commenced in March 1856, Victoria in July 1853, South Australia in June 1842 and Tasmania in December 1838 (though Tassie never really got the hang of registering births!)

As Beth said, it may be recorded on the manifest if that survives, but otherwise the child may have been baptised after arrival.  Some pre 1856 baptisms are included in the online NSW indexes.

Debra 

[DixieFamily]

Thanks Debra for further information. Very helpful.

regards

[majm]

Enquiring about a birth in 1840 on a ship from England to Australia.   

1840 …. Which port, or at least which colony  was the destination where your family landed ?   In 1840, “Australia” was not the name of any of the colonies that in 1901 were federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia.    The colony of New South Wales in 1840 included what is now Victoria and Queensland as well as New South Wales, and Dundee has already given you info about commencement civil registrations of births in most of the Antipodean colonies.   

Many of the NSW parish registers have been transcribed and uploaded to FamilySearch (use Australia and New Zealand collections can be helpful)  https://familysearch.org/search   

The NSW State Records Office has uploaded images of many passenger lists at the following link (but you need the name of the ship)
http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/guides-and-finding-aids/nrs-lists/nrs-5316   or if you don’t have the name of the ship, then try the keyName search option using the family surname
http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/indexes-online/indexes-online

The ship’s log often recorded births and deaths during the voyage …..

Ian Nicholson’s Log of Logs ….   1840 should be Vol II. 
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1458167

http://guides.sl.nsw.gov.au/content.php?pid=389784&sid=3364985 (How to use the Log of Logs)


Cheers,  JM