The Chinese Naturalisation Database is based on the Naturalisation
records and the Colonial Secretary's Correspondence held by the State
Records Office of New South Wales. The original Database was compiled
by consultant historian Terri McCormack, with technical assistance from
Peter Gallen. It was compiled in association with Shirley Fitzgerald's
book Red Tape, Gold Scissors (NSW State Library Press, 1996 and
updated for reissue by Halstead Press, 2008), which was commissioned
by the Sydney City Council. The current version has been made available
on the web by the Chinese Heritage of Australian Federation Project.
Most Chinese became naturalised to acquire the rights of a British
subject to vote and to hold land in NSW. Others already farmed land
and desired to make their title legal. Some had business interests which
were limited by their alien status. And some had Australian wives and
families and desired to settle. The Database lists the names of those
Chinese who were naturalised prior to the NSW Chinese Restriction Act
of 1888. Earlier legislation prevented Chinese naturalisation from 1850
to 1856 and from 1859 to 1867. The Database format allows for the manipulation
of data in ways which give new perspectives on the Chinese who settled
in Australia before the White Australia policy came into effect.
The Chinese Naturalisation Database consists of 971 entries. Each entry
contains eighteen fields of information about each naturalised person.
Chinese names have been entered exactly how they appear in the archival
records. This means that Chin Kin Try will be entered under 'C', as
will Charles Moy Hing. If you are unsure of the exact name or correct
order, you can search with partial criteria or any combination of names.
Most Fields in the Database reflect the information contained in Certificates
of Naturalisation. There is considerable variation in the amount of
detail included. The Certificate Year field enables chronological searches
while the fields for Certificate Date and Date of Application can be
compared to indicate the time taken to process the application. Note
that the Age field refers to the applicant's age when he first applied,
not when he received his Certificate of Naturalisation. Chinese applicants
used agents to process their applications and it is often the agent's
address which appears in the Address field. Occupations change over
time and where more than one occupation is noted this appears in the
Secondary Occupation field.
The Memorial Number, consisting of year and file number, and other
details are derived from the file numbers of original applications in
the Colonial Secretarys Correspondence. It is included to provide ready
access to this complex material. In the Source field, Colonial Secretary's
(Col Sec) and Memorial file or box numbers are preceded by AONSW, referring
to the Archives Office of NSW, the former name of State Records. There
are two Yes/No fields: The Sydney field indicating whether or not the
applicant lived in Sydney, and the Reason field where those who have
provided a non-standard reason for applying for naturalisation are noted.
The standard reason for application was "the desire to possess all the
rights and liberties of a British Subject". The Remarks field includes
these other reasons for application, additional information from Certificates,
Application Forms, and accompanying documentation, the name of the agent
or referee, references to land holdings, families and business interests,
and other relevant details or comments supplied by the compiler from
other sources.
In addition to the web based version of the Database digital copies
of the database are also for sale.
System Requirements:
The Database was compiled as a Flat-File dBASE using *Paradox for
DOS.
It is designed for IBM compatible computers, 80386 or better, with
minimum 4MB RAM.
It consists of two three and a half inch floppy disks to be installed
on your hard drive.
It occupies four and a half megabytes of disk space.
It is designed for DOS but can also be run on Windows.
All necessary files are contained on the disks, no special programs
are required.
Data can be exported to any word processing or database program
if desired.
