Ships’ passenger lists, including details of sea journeys made by stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn, went online yesterday.
The details, which also show ocean voyages taken by film director Alfred Hitchcock and a young Olivia Newton-John, are available on the family history website www.genesreunited.co.uk.
The lists, covering 24 million passengers, include people on board ships departing British ports for long-distance voyages from 1890 to 1960.
The records cover the period of mass migration to Australia between 1947 and 1960 when an estimated 710,000 people travelled Down Under from Britain.
They included Ms Newton-John who as a young child emigrated to Australia with her family in the early 1950s.
The records show a voyage taken in the mid-1930s by Ms Taylor when she was just two, while those logging on can check on a trip taken by Hitchcock when he was 56 in the 1950s.
Also in the lists is a voyage taken by Ms Hepburn when she was 22 in the early 1950s.
The records show not just passengers’ names and ages, but also departure and destination ports, the ship’s name and date of travel as well as actual descriptions of the passengers themselves, such as, UK address, year of birth, marital status, occupation and nationality.
Rhoda Breakell, head of Genes Reunited, said: “The wealth of passenger list records now available is an invaluable resource for people tracing relatives they believe may have left the UK from 1890 onwards.
“The passenger records may very well provide a missing link for many family historians who have hit a brick wall in their research, as well as helping those outside of the UK to trace back to their British and European heritage.”
The records show that Ms Taylor was travelling on the French liner Washington which left Southampton for New York on July 19, 1934.
Alfred Hitchcock sailed from Southampton to New York on the SS Liberte on January 11, 1955. His address in the UK had been Claridges Hotel in London.
Ms Hepburn sailed on the Queen Mary which left Southampton for New York on September 29, 1951, while Ms Newton-John was aboard the Strathaird which left London for Sydney on December 30, 1953.