Minogue's Welsh ancestry revealed.
Internet savvies will already be aware of the huge potential on the internet to trace your family history.
So when a UK newspaper, the Daily Mail, decided to look through the passenger lists of the 1950s emigration scheme to Australia it was probably no surprise to find that Kylie Minogue’s mother had been one of the Ten Pound Poms.
The revelation that Kylie’s mother is in fact from Wales, isn’t much of a revelation at all since it’s common knowledge to all her fans and even has a mention on Kylie’s Wikipedia page. The fact that her mother was a Ten Pound Pom should also not be such a surprise as it was the biggest scheme of the decade to populate Australia with more British families.
Kylie’s mother, Carol Jones, came from the town of Maesteg in South Wales and was only 12 years old when she emigrated to Australia with her family in 1955. They were among nearly 710,000 Britons who were lured to new lives in Australia by £10 tickets, earning them the name ‘Ten Pound Poms’.
Carol Jones later went on to meet and marry Ronald Minogue who himself has Irish ancestry.
The vast population of Australia is made up entirely of immigrants, the first ones from Britain arriving in the country on the 26 January 1788 – a date that is now celebrated as Australia Day. The discovery of gold around 1851 led to the first of many goldrushes which attracted immigrants not only from Britain but also from America, Europe and China.
At the end of the second world war Australia launched a massive immigration program which led to more than two million people leaving Europe for Australia, including a large number of Jews. One of the schemes the Australian government used during this time was to charge adults a ten pound sterling fare to travel to Australia – with children travelling free. The government did this to populate Australia with workers for the country’s booming industries, the only stipulation being that they remained in Australia for at least two years.
Therefore if you’re an Australian resident, chances are that you have your origins in the UK. Viewing your family history records couldn’t be easier now, just go to the National Archives of Australia and look under their migration, citizenship and travel section.
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