Are you the descendant of a convict?
Utilising just released data from the State Library of Queensland, I have put together a searchable database of the British Convict transportation register. Over 123,000 of the 160,000 convicts transported to Australia are in this database – check out your families Convict Records!
I have already found some interesting facts – Did You Know: 603 convicts carried the name John Smith – the most common name in the records?
Don’t miss the convict facts for all sorts of weird and interesting things. Over time I will be adding information about the First Fleet, Second Fleet and Third Fleet, the lifestyle of convicts and more.
Did I mention its free?
What a fantastic new site and very useful for anyone needing help with convicts to Australia
thank you for this wonderful resource
Elizabeth
Great site, managed to confirm details of a direct descendent William Lingard of Tideswell. He was a very ‘naughty boy’ having spent most of his time in Iron gangs or gaol or undergoing punishment (lashes etc)
Escaped and recaptured. In irons for a year
Escaped in 1839 with five other and became bush rangers
Recaptured after shoot out
Sent to Norfolk Island
Survived and was sent to VDL in 1844
Gained and lost ToL
Regained ToL
CP on 22/6/1852 and then disappears from records
Additional information: the ship used to take him from Norfolk Island to VDL was the Lady Franklin.
I’ve no idea on where I might go looking for him 1852 onwards?
With regards to the Coromandel and the Perseus, the convict ships which sailed together from Spithead in 1802. I have the sailing date of both ships, what happened on the voyage of the Perseus. I also have the break up of the convicts who sailed on each ship and also what happened to most of the convicts on the Perseus, after they arrived in Sydney Cove. I have notes from the Log of the Perseus, especially the two days before they arrived in Port Jackson, which is very intersting indeed. My husband’s ggg grandfather was John Pearce/Pearse, a 26 year old farmer from Eling near the New Forest in Hampshire, tried for poaching the Kings Deer in the New Forest, in the Great Hall in Winchester. He was sentenced to death, which was commuted to transportation for Life. He was assigned to Lt, Nicholas Paget Bayley as his Hut Keeper and later he was assigned to Baron August Alt, the first Surveyor Gerneral of Lands in the Colony, who arrived on the First Fleet. John became a Police officer, after his received his Conditional Pardon, he married another convict Mary Lees (Friendship 1806), they had two sons Robert and Richard. After John received his Conditional Pardon, he became a Police Officer and served in the force for over 20 years, while his wife Mary ran the Freemason’s Hotel in Castlereagh Street in Brickfield Hill, which was built on his Land Grant.
Cheers Janice
Correction:-
I made an error, Mary Lees the Colonial wife of John Pearce/Pearse, did not arrive on the Friendship, she arrived on the William Pitt in 1806, she was tried at Lancaster Castle and sentecned to 7 years with three of her nieces, Ann Hughes, Ellen McIntosh and Catherine Frazer. It was convict Elizabeth McGuiness (Maginnis) who arrived on the Friendship in 1816, with her two children Thomas 7 and Elizabeth 5. Young Elizabeth, married in 1832 Richard, the Colonial born son, of John Pearce/Pearse and Mary Lees.
Cheers – Janice
This database is an excellent resource and much more accessible than the SLQ source. As I am a researcher my interest is in convicts as a group rather than in individuals. I would particularly like to know whether the database contains any information about literacy levels and the occupations of convicts, both before and after transportation to Australia (the occupation was often recorded on the ship’s indent, which can be difficult to access).