Mystery Number

When I was a child (10 months old) my family emigrated from the UK to Australia as ‘ten pound poms’.

I was able to find us on the passenger arrivals list for the Canberra in 1965.

Then I was able to see scans of the incoming passenger cards and see my mum’s and dad’s writing on cards filled in when we arrived!

Fantastic... and that’s when I was flummoxed.

Item 3 on the incoming passenger card is “Passport or other Travel Document No.”

All - mother, father, 2 sisters and myself have **the same number**

It isn’t my father’s passport number. So what document does this number refer to?

Comment by Sylvia on March 25, 2018 at 7:49: I assume that the kids did not have their own travel documents, but were listed on Mum's passport.

This seemed to be fairly common in the olden days, but I believe that nowadays this isn't always allowed anymore.

Comment by John Parnaby on March 25, 2018 at 11:31: Hi Sylvia

Thanks for that... but why would the number on my father's incoming card be same number too - my mother's passport number? Surely it would be his passport number. Was that an official just making the paperwork simpler?

Comment by Sylvia on March 25, 2018 at 14:44: Sorry, I misunderstood and thought it was just mum and kids. To at least determine that it could be passport number, does the number format at least resemble your dad's passport number? If yes, I suppose immigration could have made a mistake and listed your father under your mum's passport number.

Otherwise, I wonder whether it could be something like a visa number or an emigration file number. If you still have your dad's passport, maybe that number is mentioned with the visa stamp.

Comment by Sylvia on March 25, 2018 at 15:05: I can see that in 1948 the UK was issuing passport numbers 842361 - 882640, so your number seems a bit low.

Comment by John Parnaby on March 25, 2018 at 17:01: Hi Silvia - thanks again. I've seen a pic of my dad's passport which covers 1959-69 (am waiting for it to come out here to look at it properly) - but the number doesn't match meaning we might have all come out on a different document altogether - but mum always said we were on dad's documents and it does seem odd that all five of us are assigned the same number.

I was told some brits arrived with a form associated with the assisted passage scheme, and I was wondering what one of those looked like.

Comment by John Parnaby on March 26, 2018 at 9:59: OK, I've found what it might have been - a "Document of Identity" to be surrendered on disembarkation. Museums Victoria has this sample https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/2043505