When Governor Macquarie laid the foundation stone for the Parramatta Female Factory in July 1818, little did he know how important its role would be to understanding the lives of female convicts 200 years later. It’s estimated that one in every five to seven Australians is related to a female convict who was incarcerated at Read More
The density of the convict collections now available on Ancestry.com.au allow those researching their convict forbears to paint a vivid picture, not just of the convicts themselves, but also of their journey and their experiences in the fledgling colony of New South Wales. James Walsh was a 26 year old shoemaker when he arrived in Read More
Over 1.8 million NSW crime and law records now available on Ancestry.com.au We recently added the New South Wales Police Gazettes 1854-1930 collection and 120,000 new records to the New South Wales, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930 collection. These collections offer a window into the lives of people on both sides of the law, from lists of police officers, Read More
The founding of Australia as a penal colony for the transportation of convicts from Britain is of course well known. The First Fleet arrived in New South Wales on 26th January 1788 and over the following 80 years approximately 160,000 convicts were transported to various locations in the country to serve their sentence. In the Read More
Ever wondered where your hairy legs come from? Or perhaps it’s your ruddy complexion, flaxen hair or so-called frugal nature… We often boast about the crimes of our convict ancestors, but with the List of Convicts with Particulars 1788-1842, Australians can now also get a picture of what they looked like. This collection contains information Read More
The New South Wales Registers of Convicts’ Applications to Marry 1826-1851 contains more than 40,000 convict applications to wed, including numerous multiple applications made by those whose initial applications were refused. In the early years of the Australian Colony, most marriages followed the publication of banns in a church on three successive Sundays. Convicts did Read More
In his Report of the Commissioner of inquiry into the state of the colony of New South Wales, Commissioner John Thomas Bigge made the recommendation that any money belonging to and brought by the convicts should be taken and deposited into a savings bank account. Prior to this, convicts had been able to retain any Read More
New South Wales was first settled in 1788 as a penal colony and, as a result, a large percentage of the population in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was comprised of convicts and ex-convicts. A person could be emancipated by receiving a certificate of freedom, a ticket of leave, or by being granted Read More
The England & Wales Criminal Registers 1791-1892 contain records for all 1.4 million criminal trials reported to the Home Office that took place in England and Wales from the late 18th to the late 19th centuries, painting a detailed picture of Britain’s early legal system1. The collection – taken from 279 original paper volumes held Read More
The Convict Transportation Registers 1788-1868 include records for most of the 163,021 convicts transported to Australia. The collection – the originals for which are held at The National Archives of England and Wales – includes the four transportation registers spanning the 80 years of convict transportation. Australian Convict Transportation Registers – First Fleet, 1787-1788 Australian Read More