Wills Surname Immigrant Index for Port Phillip, 1839-96

Transcribed by Dale McDonell, Heathcote, Victoria.

Transcriber's note: This index covers only those that emigrated directly to the Port Phillip (Victoria) region of Australia, and arrived as intending permanent residents. It does not include those that stated they were coming for a visit or a look around, and later decided to settle here permanently. Many landed in ports in other Australian colonies and either overlanded or used the thriving coastal shipping services to move to their eventual destinations within the country. Some arrived in Port Phillip and promptly left for other colonies in Australia. During the 1850's, ship's captains were reluctant to enter any port in the Port Phillip District for fear their crews would desert and head for the rich goldfields.

It is therefore highly probable that your WILLS ancestors known to have settled in this area in the 1850's, landed in another of the colonies. These full indexes, with search facilities are available online from http://www.users.on.net/~proformat/auspass.html. Unlike the search results from the website for a ten year period, names are arranged alphabetically within their year of arrival in a given time frame. For ease of viewing, I have placed a line break at the end of each year. Line breaks also isolate obvious family sub-groups or probable relatives, arriving on the same ship, within each year, which are arranged within their own alphabetical order within the probable family group.