CEDT Index

Transcribing Chinese travels into Victoria’s history

Between 1904 and 1959, customs officials recorded the details of Chinese and Indian Victorians who travelled overseas under a certificate exempting them from having to sit the notorious dictation test on their return to Australia. They recorded the names, ages, nationalities, occupations, residencies and shipping details of these people.

CAFHOV with the help of members and friends of CAFHOV are building an online searchable index to this registers. You can search the raw (unchecked) data. We are currently working on cleaning the data and developing the search interface.

Five partial lines from the register, showing the date of issue, name, age, nationality, occupation, address, and period of residence in Victoria for Tommy Hoy, Chin Sing Toy, Ah Yen, Ah Wey and Doolah Mahomed
Details from 1933 for Tommy Hoy, Chin Sing Toy, Ah Yen, Ah Way and Doolah Mahomed. Source: NAA: B6003, 3

Launch

On Sunday, 5 May 2019 we hosted a launch event at the Chinese Museum in Melbourne to inspire people to enter data using our specially-designed online system. We also had a presentation by Dr Sophie Couchman: What are these registers and why do they matter” and by John/Ming Griffith “Finding Chin Loong”.

For further information contact the project organisers on: chindexhelp@gmail.com

Also keep an eye on our website and facebook page!

If you are interested in being part of another transcription project related to Chinese Australian historical records visit The Real Face of White Australia and get keying!

Rows 44 - 86, page 2 of register 3, showing details for 1933
Rows 44 – 86, page 2 of register 3, showing details for 1933. Help us unlock these registers. Source: NAA: B6003, 3

2 thoughts to “CEDT Index”

  1. happy to help out but cannot get to the venue. Can work from home however. I did some of these once before but cannot remember how I came to get involved etc.

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