Locals can learn family history at museum talk about 1950s migrant ship Anna Salen

Many Kalgoorlie-Boulder locals will have family ties to the Anna Salen, a ship that carried close to 14,000 people from Europe to Australia in the 1950s.

Many of those travellers settled in the Goldfields, and researcher Amanda Lovitt will present some of their stories at a public talk at the Museum of the Goldfields next Thursday evening.

Ms Lovitt began researching the Anna Salen because her father arrived in Australia on it more than 70 years ago.

“I thought it would be really interesting to just do a bit of a dive and find out what happened to the people that were on the ship with him,” she said.

“I knew a lot of the names, because so many of them on that particular journey finished up in Kalgoorlie.

“As I did that, I realised that the Anna Salen was basically a ferry — it went backwards and forwards about 10 times, and it brought close to 14,000 passengers to Australia.

Ms Lovitt has now been researching the ship’s passengers for six years and has told the stories of 9500 of them on her social media page.

The presentation on Thursday is open to anyone interested in learning more about the ship, research or family history.

“I do talk a lot about the research process with some different websites and different tips and things that I use to find information,” Ms Lovitt said.

“There are a lot of families of passengers in Kalgoorlie, and they will come along.

“They can have a look around the room . . . and connect with each other.”

Ms Lovitt has done similar presentations in Albany, Northam, Collie, Perth, Bunbury, Manjimup and Eaton, and she says unexpected surprises always come to light.

“When I spoke in Albany, I had a photo of a baby on the screen, and an elderly man stood up in the audience and yelled, ‘that’s my baby brother!’”

Her presentations have also connected two women in their eighties who were young girls together in an old photograph.

“One is in America and one is in WA, and they email each other now,” Ms Lovitt said.

She said the talk was an opportunity for locals to reflect on where they came from.

“Family history is a growing industry — people want to know their backgrounds.

“It’s a way of unifying people, and it’s exciting to find out where your family have come from.”

The free talk about Anna Salen will be given at the Museum of the Goldfields next Thursday, July 23 from 5.45pm.