Research guides on topics such as 'Australian and New Zealand Built Ships', 'Child Migration', 'Coastal Shipping', 'Convict Ships', 'First Fleet', 'Immigration - Steamships and Passenger Liners', 'Seafaring Ancestors', 'Shipwrecks' and more.
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The State Library of Queensland has complied this database from The HO 11 Criminal Convict Transportation Registers (HO 11) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP). Over 123,000 out of the estimated 160,000 convicts transported to Australia are recorded in this database. These include prisoners sent to New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Moreton Bay (Brisbane), Western Australia and Norfolk Island. These records mainly include those convicted in England and Scotland. Only a small number of Irish convicts appear in this series of the Home Office records. The database also includes soldiers who had been court-martialled and sentenced to transportation. These 'soldier convicts' may have been convicted in various British colonies including the West Indies, India, Pakistan and Canada.
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This database from State Records NSW combines six Indexes: Certificates of Freedom, 1823-69; Convict bank Accounts, 1837-70; Tickets of Exemption from Government Labor, 1827-32; Tickets of Leave, Certificates of Emancipation and Pardons, 1810-19; Tickets of Leave, 1810-75 and Ticket of Leave Passports, 1835-69
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A guide to searching for a convict at State Archives NSW includes historical background, a Convict Family History Worksheet and links to online resources. Includes the following indexes: Certificates of freedom, 1823-69; Convict Bank accounts 1837-70; Convict exiles 1849-50; Pardons, 1791-1825, 1837-41; Tickets of exemption from government labour, 1827-32; Tickets of leave, certificates of emancipation and pardons, 1810-1819; Ticket of leave passports, 1835-1869. Index of Bench of Magistrates 1788-1820; Index to (NSW) Quarter Session cases 1824-1837.
Any female convict who spent time in Van Diemen's Land is included in the database. Thus, it not only includes those women transported directly to VDL, but also those who came free and were convicted here during the period of transportation (1804-1853), or those who were transported to NSW and later came to VDL (many of whom came via Norfolk Island).
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An online gallery of 629 drawings and watercolours by artists of the First Fleet in the collections of Library of the Natural History Museum, London. The works are attributed to George Raper, Thomas Watling, and the artist known as the Port Jackson Painter.
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This site provides a database of First Fleet convicts, diary extracts, stories and letters of the time and links to other information about Australia's past.
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This database contains information about those who lived in Newcastle, Hunter Valley, Liverpool Plains and Brisbane Water districts of New South Wales before 1850.
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The International Centre for Convict Studies (ICCS) is a trans-national and multi-disciplinary consortium of scholars engaged in research on penal transportation and convict experience within the British Empire from 1600-1940. It includes researchers from Australia, United States, South Africa and Europe working in the disciplines of history, textual studies, archaeology, economics and sociology.
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This site provides an online index to records relating to transportation from Ireland to Australia covering the period from 1788 to 1868. Results of searches contain details such as name, age, crime, sentence, and the ship on which the convict was transported. Note that all transportation registers prior to 1836 were destroyed. Therefore if the convict was not the subject of a petition prior to this date, they will not appear. The names of the convict family members that came to Australia as free settlers may also be listed. This is an index only. Microfilm copies of the original records are held in the Family History Service at the State Library of NSW. These records were received in 1988 as a gift from Ireland to commemorate the bicentenary of white settlement in Australia and are sometimes known as "The Irish Gift".
This database contains details of Irish convicts who were transported to New South Wales in the period 1788 - 1849. This website is hosted by Peter Mayberry.
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Find details of the around 8,500 criminals who were sentenced in Scotland and transported to Australia between 1787-1867 in the Old Scottish Genealogy & Family History Records of Transported Convicts.
"This dataset links the transportation registers (HO11 series, held at the National Archives in London) to the records of the High Court of Justiciary/Circuit Courts in Scotland for the first time. The index on its own contains a lot more biographical and identifying information than is found in the transportation registers." Researchers may be happy just with the index, but they can also order the relevant court papers held in Edinburgh for a cost.
State Records NSW has digitised and indexed the Convict Indents which list the convicts transported to New South Wales from 1788-1800. Early indents provide name, date and place of trial and sentence while the later indents usually include physical description, native place, age and crime.
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The ADM 101 series of journals compiled by Royal Navy surgeons on emigrant and convict ships in the period 1793-1880, are now catalogued and searchable on The National Archives website. Journals can be searched by the name of the ship, surgeon, the patient as well as the disease or ailment. Only a selection of the journals have been digitised. See the list by scrolling down to the bottom of the page. To search for journals that have not been digitised but may have a summary, click on 'The Catalogue' then 'Search the Catalogue' then put in ADM101 in the Department or Series code and put the name of a ship, surgeon or patient in the Word or phrase box. The full journals are also available in the Mitchell Library on open access microfilm (AJCP collection).
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A database of nearly 10,000 convicts transported to Western Australia from 1850 to 1868. Includes details such as birth date, crime, where tried, years served, ticket of leave and certificate of freedom dates, and occupation. Searchable by name and ship. Produced by the Fremantle Prison.
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A database of nearly 10,000 convicts transported to Western Australia from 1850 to 1868. Includes details such as birth date, crime, where tried, years served, ticket of leave and certificate of freedom dates, and occupation. Searchable by name and ship. Produced by the Fremantle Prison.
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Founders & Survivors is a partnership between historians, genealogists, demographers and population health researchers. It seeks to record and study the founding population of 73,000 men women and children who were transported to Tasmania. Many survived their convict experience and went on to help build a new society.
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Search an online database which contains records of births, deaths, and marriages held in the Archives Office of Tasmania. It also provides indexes of convicts, census records, wills, divorces and other indexes. Some digitised copies of records are available online, those which are not available online can be obtained from the Archives Office of Tasmania.
This website about the Parramatta Female Factory includes a Search and a Browse facility, where you can browse Convicts, Children, Free People, Deaths, Nicknames and find information from various sources. The website notes that "new content is being added to the website all the time so, while you may not find a particular individual in our database today, check back here regularly as the person may have been added." The Mitchell Library also holds Joan Reese's Index to the Female Factory Parramatta 1826 to 1848 on microfiche MAV/FM6/376.
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