Warbrides

My mother came to Australia after World War II as a war bride on the Stirling Castle and I would like to find out more about the journey and the ship. Where do I start?

note: the Stirling Castle is used as an example. The same information applies to whatever ship you are trying to trace.

I suggest you start with the National Archives. You can ask them to help you
to find information about the voyage your mother was on. Do you know what
date she arrived? Many of the ships that brought out brides made a number of
voyages and I think the Stirling Castle was one of them. The files don't
carry a great information on some of the journeys, and are simply a list of
the women who were on board.

However I would certainly start there. Go to http://www.naa.gov.au/. Then the next thing to do is go to Research as it explains their services.

Then go to About Us and click on Publications, then click on Fact
Sheets and click ''by number''. You want no.14 which will explain Keyword
Searching. This is important because it will speed up your search.
Once you've done that you can go back to the home page and click on Record
Search in top right corner. I just did a search on Stirling Castle,
1945-1950 and there are 18 entries.

You can also search on your mother's maiden name and your father's name. I hope this is some help and I am sure the National Archives will be able to help you further if you get stuck.
If you need further help go to the forum where you can post a question which will alert others who may be able to help you to your search.