Passenger lists do exactly what their name suggests, and can be particularly useful if you are struggling to locate a relative who seems to have disappeared from other records. They are, quite simply, a fully indexed list of all passengers on ships leaving the UK for a destination outside of Europe.

Many will be quite basic, with minimal information other than a name and a destination port but equally, many others beautifully crafted historic documents and others still will contain a surprising amount of detail, from full names to dates of birth, exact address of departure and exact address at destination.