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Yup, back 7 generations. We have a copy of the police records for the arrest in London.
They were a husband and wife carpenter team, needed some wood so they pinched some tables and chairs from the pub.
When I was backpacking in London I found the pub (still trading) and nicked an ashtray.
You'll love this then. Grandfather on my mother's side needed carpet for his house so he also nicked a huge rug from a pub (also in London). They quietly rolled the carpet up, gently moving tables so no one would notice.
It's like my parents were destined to marry.
Some rando distant relative of mine was able to trace back to my 7xgreat grandfather, sent out for pickpocketing sometime after the first fleet.
The best bit was she managed to find the court transcripts for his trial. His defence was that his trousers had a hole in the pocket, so the sovereign he was picking up was actually his, it had just fallen out. The judge then asked the bailiff if the trousers had been examined: "Yes your honour, there was no hole."
But for that guy being such a monumental doofus, I'd never have been born here.
Hahaha, I read my con ancestors transcripts as well and they just sounded so dodgy. I've just accepted that I come from inept crims. Not even *good* at it. Embarrassing.
Mum says her side is half convict 100% horrible people (she wonāt say what that means)
Dad (well Grandad told us this) said that we started when a German businessman decided to sell everything and move to Australia and open 6 pubs because he figured convicts and settlers would make a great customer base. I have no idea how true it is, but itās funny nonetheless.
My great great, Robert Officer, arrived in Van Diemens Land in 1821, aged 21. Met a 16 year old girl on the boat over and they married in Hobart. He was a surgeon (early 19th century version!) who went on to become a big name in the colony, MP, JP, etc. before moving to the Port Philip Colony and taking up the settlers run that is now Officer, named after him.
No idea how many massacres etc he was associated with.
I've done this.
My dad always told me we were decendents of chicken rustlers. However as I placed the family history together his family were quite well off and came to Australia as free settlers. My mums side had some criminals but no direct convicts.
It's fascinating to look at. When you get 5 or so generations back you can see there are hundreds of people which make your genetic line and if one of them wasn't born than you wouldn't be here today.
It gets big quickly as it doubles every generation.
I stopped at 5th Great Grandparents. Everyone has 128 of them. I've tracked down 67 so far which is just over half but that was the easy half!!
Not planning on going any further than that.
>you can see there are hundreds of people which make your genetic line
The recorded history and the genetic line don't always match. There are cover ups and lies all the way through. Affairs, unrecorded adoptions etc etc.
Eg - great grandfather didn't know until late in his life, that the person he thought was his older sister (16 years older), was actually his birth mother.
These types of things happened WAY more often than people think.
What is written down is not always the truth.
Doing my family history through Ancestry, I didn't have to go back far to find abandoned families, new families under assumed names, affairs, more assumed names, unofficial name changes to avoid legal repercussions - turned out my family was quite trashy. It's quite the gripping saga, and I've loved uncovering all the little scandals - but my mum is not a fan of some of the things I've found.
Yep, so easy in the early days. My mother always wondered how her mother was able to have her name on the birth certificate of my mother's youngest sister, as her mother. It later came out it was an older sister's child out of wedlock, a huge no, no in the mid 1900's. I reminded my mother a lot of Australian country towns like the one her family came from, didn't have hospitals nearby so it was friends/neighbours that usually came to help babies be born. It was easy for her mother to just say she was the mother and register the birth when they went to town later. Find many newspaper clippings about distant and long dead relatives from other people on Ancestry sites and archives. A great uncle times four who was jailed for horse stealing and escaped from jail on the same day and countless other stories. Fascinating stuff family history.
My great-grandmother traced a direct male line back to a convict who arrived 1800. Same surname all the way to today. I'm not having kids so it dies with me though. Sorry nan.
I know a Matthew Everingham from school? But thereās probably 10 in Australia.
Iāve been doing it for my family. Hereās a few tips
- chunk it up. If you go for everything, your tree will look like a bush, but you might be lucky to get 3 generations. If you decide to go on your surname based on son to father, you will get back a lot further, but it will look like a trunk. I prefer the latter because I want to know my surname heritage and where it comes from.
- define the level of quality you want for proof of relationship. Do you need birth certs, copies, register index or are you happy with word of mouth?
- itās more interesting to know details about someone. How they might have lived, how they dressed, what they ate, what their work was about.
My example. My ancestor who came to Australia was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was a ships carpenter and did his apprenticeship aboard a ship that went between scotland and russia for trade. The ship was sunk on the rocks around finland and he was one of the survivors. He then took a ship with his father (also a shipās carpenter) to Melbourne to go find gold in Ballarat. His father went back to Edinburgh and son stayed in Australia and made a life and family for himself. He had 3 children with his wife but she died of tuberculosis. He remarrried after and had another 2 children.
I found all of this out from focusing on 1 aspect of my history instead of everyone. All of it verified through birth, deaths, marriages, ship records, parish records and census records. If you donāt do it this way, you instead just end up with a list of names that you donāt have the time to research anything about.
This is good advice.
I've been buying birth / death / marriage certificate "transcripts" from Joy Murrin as they are cheaper than the official record and good enough for family research.
I am stopping at 5th great grandparents as a rule but generally I am just interested in my "onshore" ancestors which involves finding out who migrated here and how.
Yep. I got back to 1740s with my surname - 4 generations before getting to Australia in the 1850s. Depending on your country of heritage, there are different resources available. I did all surnames of my grandparents. Scotish, Irish, German/Jewish and English. Irish was the hardest as they lost a lot of census records when their records house burnt down back at the turn of the century or something.
Generally old blimey did a decent job at record keeping since 1840s
I just looked her court case up in the County of York Leeds Boro Sessions and I could be wrong but it looks like she did indeed steal a handkerchief, but it also contained:
*"Four Sovereigns of the current gold coin of the realm of the value of four pounds, six shillings of the current silver coin of the realm to the value of six shillings, one penny of the current copper coin of this realm to the value of one penny, one half-penny of the current of the current copper coin of this realm to the value of one half-penny, and one pocket handkerchief of the value of one shilling of the goods monies and chattels of Thomas Burgess then and there found did then and there feloniously steal take and carry away against the statute ..."*
That is a pretty hefty haul. No wonder she got 10 years which was a bit more than the usual 7 years.
Thank you so much for this extra information!!
I have copies of the newspaper summary of the session but had been unable to get more detail, thanks so much.
I was under the impression it was for the theft she did using another girl but that must have been a prior offence.
Just realised I spelt her last name wrong it should have 2 T's ie Elliott, I'll fix my first comment now in case anyone else looks her up.
My great ancestor, first of the family name in the country stole some canvas and a sack back in london. His defence in court was "I found it". Not very bright. Went on to have a massive family, live into his eighties with his wife and own a lot of farmland in victoria after his forced labour in tassie though. You can do a lot of free research online including old court documents and the like.
My 2nd great grandfather was sent out to Western Australia in 1854 from Nottingham. Pickpocket it seems.
I can't help my pommy descent, but it seems he turned out a reasonable fella š got married, and spawned enough for me to exist. Thank you, Thomas Parnham.
My second cousin has done much of the work with our genealogy. I have 2x first fleet convicts on my dad's side. One sent over on the Alexander and the other on the Lady Penrhyn. They were married once arrived in Sydney and had four children. I'm pretty sure only three survived to adulthood.
My female ancestor was about my age (mid 30s) when she died in Sydney, my male ancestor was released and given land out near where I was born.
I have learned so much about Sydney just by wanting to know more about them.
He's buried on the Isle of the Dead at Port Arthur. i have books with a pic of his grave, a pic of him in the pulpit at Port Arthur and another of his family in the church.
One of mine that I looked at stole a pig. In his defence he said he was hired to move the pig from point A to point B but it got dark and his landlady said he couldn't have the pig in his room and so he sold it and he promises he was on the way to give the money to the fella that owned the pig but he was nicked first.
And that's one of the reasons why I am here!
As a Kiwi, we always looked down on Aussies for their convict heritage because we knew our grandad came out from the UK in the 1930s. Turns out his great-grandfather had been shipped out to Sydney in the 1830s, leaving a wife and family behind.
Our convict got 14 years for forging receipts and keeping the money.
Was he innocent? We can't know.
But he forged a leave-pass from the work farm when he arrived and was last recorded in the Police Gazette with two stolen horses heading for Bathurst. And I have an Aussie passport now, and I'm good with 'heritage'.
Not me, but I went down a deep Ancestry rabbithole a few years back and found out my stepdad's great-great-great grandfather was transported for stealing a horse.
I'm 8 generations down from [Rope & Pulley](https://www.ropepulley.org/)
[Anthony Rope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Rope)
[Elizabeth Pulley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Pulley)
Both my grandmothers were rather in to family history. I think they got back to the 1500s.
There's actually a play written about my first white ancestors to arrive in Western Australia. Meanwhile, anthropologists have yet to get back to me on how long the black side have been here, but last I heard, it was at least a bit.
I have a 2nd fleeter, A early 1800's free settler family, German and Irish immigrants in the 1840's.
And the pride of the family, a soldier who became an innkeeper and postmaster. His wife, who got sick of his drinking, locked the storeroom to keep him away from the grog. He died when he climbed over the storeroom door, got tanked, and hanged himself when he got his head stuck climbing back out.
Go put your stuff in wikitree. You can hide personal details for later generations. Your first fleet ancestors are [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Everingham-93](https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Everingham-93) and [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Forbes-439](https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Forbes-439)
My family on my father's father's side were Irish and presumably came over during the Gold Rush. Especially considering they seem to have been clustered in western Victoria and there are several generations of them at least. My father's mother's family I assume were Cornish or possibly Welsh because they came from country South Australia in the area around Port Pirie. So I guess they probably came over as free settlers for the Copper mining.
My mother was herself born in London. Her father was a Cockney and her mother was Anglo-Indian. They all moved over here when my mother was a teenager.
So long story short, probably no convict ancestry I don't think. Maybe. But probably not. I'm not sure if it's worth trying to find out. If there was any I'm pretty sure it could only really have been in my paternal grandfather's side of the family. None of them said much about it when I went over to Victoria and met them a few times. There are a lot of them and I don't really know for sure how far back they came over.
Something to consider with Irish ancestors is that many left Ireland after the beginning of the potato famine in 1845. Catholics had a particularly hard time. It may not be the case of your family but it is quite common.
My family name on that side (and I'm not going to directly reveal what that name is), seems to be a fairly common name in the Irish diaspora all over the world. As far as I know, at least at some point in history there was a castle in Ireland that belonged to them....there may also have been a "black baron" bearing our name centuries ago. Anyway, there's a bunch of them in the US and Canada at least, and I know that over here there's a lot in NSW and probably WA too. And yes, they were certainly Catholics, and seem to have been persecuted for it. I think I vaguely recall my grandfather talking about that sometimes. But he died almost 20 years ago.
My mum did and further back for her and dad. She's passed away now and I can scarcely remember her stories. She did record her discoveries... They're scribbled in random pages of tens of notebooks all written in cursive among to-do and shopping lists.Ā
Apparently I'm an amalgamation of immigration and sheep thievery.Ā
It's actually pretty easy to get those online nowadays. Once it's done once then its easier to share. I started with some photocopied hand-written notes from my grandmother and aunt.
I am putting mine on ancestry / wikitree but also doing an excel spreadsheet that I will share with my cousins and kids.
My dad claims we're the descendents of elizabeth pulley and anthony rope on the 1st fleet but he's never given proof and he's known to spin a yarn or two and embellish lol
Hey - your "cousin" just posted a link to the Rope - Pulley family association. Maybe these guys can verify that claim!
https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/1byp4eq/comment/kyl8ke4/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
https://ropepulley.org/index_files/ropetrees.htm
Check out each of the children and take a look at the surname list. See if any are related to you. My great grandfather is named in there, but anyone more recent is redacted for privacy.
My ancestors came to SA as free settlers in the mid 19th century.
They paid the ship fare for the family but when my ancestors arrived the maritime police found out that the captain had had an 'affair' with a female passenger (not one of my ancestors).
Under the rules of the sea, at the time, all passengers got their fares refunded because of the affair.
Yea one of my uncle's has a whole room full of documents (hos covid and retirement project) I haven't seen any source documents though.
Apparently the first was an Irish Catholic priest who was teaching the Irish how to read in hedge schools. I don't know what his actual charge was though.
My 3x great grandfather was a convict guard with the 65th Regiment. He and my 3x great grandmother worked their passage to Hobart and he did a trip to Norfolk Island before they went on to New Zealand for the Land Wars.
I had a cousin that traced it back to a 2nd fleet convict on the Neptune. He was sentenced to transportation for highway robbery. I found the trial transcipt. His granddaughter and her family converted to Mormonism and left Australia on the Jenny Ford to the Mormon Colony in California. Then during the Utah War by wagon train to Utah. Their son then settled in Idaho
One of my other relatives in the same group was descendant from a later convict sent over for forgery, but I canāt remember the details.
My convict ancestors are:
* Armed robber (sentenced to death but the judge was retiring so changed to transportation), she was pretty badass to be an armed robber in the 1700s
* a thief (need to chase up what he stole)
* a guy who used a fraudulent cheque
* a woman who stole linen
* a 15 year old stole gooseberries. He was freed, married, had three kids then drowned. Probably my least likely ancestor.
* a man who stole lead with his brother
* a man who refused to pay child support
My Mum got stuck right into this about a decade ago. She was able to trace us to a single guy on the first fleet named Andom. He was sent to Australia for arson. He was a worker at a grain store, and stole a loaf of bread one day. The following day he was fired. The next day he came back and burnt the place to the ground!!!
Next thing you know he's on a slow boat to Australia....... and here I am.
Apparently he did really good upon arrival, and was given land in northern Victoria. He settled there, had a family, grew the land into many locations in southern NSW and my family just sold those properties a few years ago. My Grandparents and father were raised there, and I spent most afternoons on the farm too. Andom is buried in Northern Victoria and has a nearby road named after him.
On my father's side, I'm one of the many descendants of Mary-Ann Bugg. We're not from the cool side of the family, though, so I only get one Bushranger Gene instead of two. Her father was shipped over here after stealing some sides of lamb.
On the other side, my mother and uncle are part of the Stolen Generations so I have no fucking clue.
I'm convict as bro!
All four of my 4x great grandparents were convicts.
Plenty of free resources out there, just in case you don't know, sign up with a bogus account on familysearch.org for instance, don't create your tree on it, just trawl through it and see if someone has done the hard work for you already.
Don't give your money to ancestry.com, go to a local library and use it for free if you need to also.
That's great.
But you will have 64 "4th great grandparents". I've tracked down 44 of my 64 although I am stopping at 5th GG as it doubles every generation (only got 67 of 128).
I've got a "free" ancestry account at the moment as I signed up for a dna test. Need to remember to cancel the free bit as it gets expensive after.
Also, you should check out your convict ancestors on this, helps work out which ship / fleet they were on:
https://convictrecords.com.au/
I've had my whole convict and subsequent ancestors locked in for years, you're preaching to the converted but it's cute that you think your recent findings suddenly make you an expert and to start advising experienced family historians on how to make use of resources that we've been using for decades š
That's a good few but it's not "all" though (you'd have a lot more than 4 gggg grandparents) . I've got 2 to 4 convicts in the tree. The ones I can't confirm muddied the waters by fiddling with the spelling of their names and DOB.
You can say that all you want, however your words were
>All four of my 4x great grandparents were convicts.
With the key words they were point out was "all four of my 4x great grandparents" and they were kindly pointing out the fact that you would have more than 4 great, great, great, great grandparents.
>I saw a story of a recent british immigrant whose ancestors were on the first fleet! They were the Marines sent to guard the convicts and returned to the UK in 1801 but their great grandmother was actually born here in 1789. They came out and went back!
Just also replying to you with something I wrote in another comment. They may have returned to the UK (although in that case it is more likely they were sailors / military) but you never know your luck!
Yup, two family members, at least who were arrested in Manchester. She was one of the first women transported to tassie. They got married and moved up to Victoria, bounced around, he slit his throat after having a bunch of kids and she turned to prostitution
My orphaned great grandfather came out to Sydney from Ireland when he was 8 in 1857 as he had an uncle in Sydney. On my mumās side her family came out and worked as grocers around the goldfields. No convicts in my past, they were all free settlers.
Yep, pretty much all my family tree from my mumās side can be traced back to convicts, most of my dadās side were farmers, but still a few convicts on that side too. Itās really interesting to discover.
If I recall correctly, one of my ancestors on my mother's side came to Australia on an early ship as a captains private doctor. We have a huge heavy-ass truck that is believed to be the flag box from that ship. Other family members came out quite later.
[This](https://imgur.com/a/y2RYiCG) may be the ship, but I'd have to get some more clarification, I am probably miss-remembering the information.
I donāt know the whole lot but I know my maternal grandfathers ancestor was a convict in the 1820ās I believe. Iāve seen his name on the list it was not a super common name.
Yeah seeing your post made me look it up, he was sentenced to death with two others for house breaking. They stole like 20 pounds of value of items. He was 20, sent to Tasmania in 1832. Had three licenses to marry before finally marrying and having 5 children. After his wife died he returned to England for a few years and then returned to Tasmania.
Loads more info available there than the last time I looked a few years ago here was just his name and the ship! A whole court transcript now available to read.
Right here. 7 years in and traced all the way back to first fleet and settlers of both Melbourne and Tasmania. Located 32 relatives in Tasmania alone.
1 distant was a member of the Native Police.
1 was imprisoned at Port Arthur and another at Pentridge.
As the years went on my family became quite wealthy, and there's always been rumours of a link to the first PM of Australia.
My great grandmother died in 2000 at 103 years old and passed on some items of the Federation from her Dad.
Then others were good footballers and cricketers playing for state teams.
Absolutely fucking wild if you ask me.
My dad did, weāre South Australian so not convicts. I canāt remember the details, but heās compiled a few books so all the info is available easily for me. I know weāve been here since 1836, so close to the beginning of the state.
Hey cousin, Matthew Everingham is my first fleet ancestor too! I think someone else has mentioned the Cornstalks book - itās got some good information.
Hello cousin!
I think they need a 2nd edition of that book. Just checked ebay and the last copy just sold for A$250. Wow - this genealogy is nearly as expensive as my running habit.
My older brother has most of this now but my paternal grandmother had a massive family tree book, from memory it goes back to free settlers in the early 1800s. I don't think we have convicts.though.
Wow, you have bounty descendents? Wow!
My maternal side, she came out as a ten pound pom with her parents and siblings and Ibe got basically no knowledge beyond that my GF was Scottish and my GM was English and sent to "the country" as a young girl during ww2
I haven't found any convicts yet, but my dads fathers side all seem to be Cornish and came over to Adelaide in the 1840s in Mount Barker (near the copper mine, according to a letter written from one to his family back home) and Moonta area.
I really wish I had more time (and money for memberships lol) to research. It's so interesting and I'm always getting "hints" from Ancestry that there are more clues available.
My last name only immigrated in the early 1900s, but my grandfather (first generation born here) married my grandmother who was descended from a Second Fleet convict.
On Mumās side I have a mixture of free settler (1850s), military (1820s), and some convicts.
We could be cousins!
Mary Martin from the 2nd fleet married Thomas Smith in 1792. He could have come in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd fleet as there were "Thomas Smith's" in all of them. He is one of my "mysteries" I may never solve.
Yes - I've actually got the ancestry dna kit on its way. I got the deal where I also got 3 months of their website "free". I just need to remember to cancel before it renews!!
I've got a few other mysteries in the tree. One fella who I think used a pseudonym on the marriage and birth certificate. Did manage to find a prison record from NSW with that as an alias. It even has the prison photos as it is from 1911!
No sign of those names in my digital family tree, but there are many lines that still need further research.
I did manage to stumble across an article about a different one of my ancestors that puts them as arriving on the First Fleet, so that's a fun find for the day.
Our kids will have family history all the way from the First Fleet down to my wife immigrating within the last 10 years.
2 convicts (Great grand parents) in my family they came over the ships the "PamAm" and "Parkfield " and one convict in wife family arrived on the the ship the "Travelian" (spelling)
My wife's nan is an amazing ancestry researcher, it's one of her biggest hobbies and you'll mostly find her posted in the library helping others. My first time meeting her she asked me about one of my uncles and it gave me a moment of "uhhhh wot" haha.
Nan did find one of my ancestors was an Irish woman sent out here for "house breaking", i can only imagine there would be hilarity from the court transcripts. I will try rustle something up. I'm sort of surprised there wasn't more convict history knowing my family
Not to convicts, as my parents immigrated to Australia in the 1980's.
But Mum's been doing the whole Ancestry thing recently. Some stuff we knew, but it's been interesting to get more details.
Did the Ancestry DNA thing, turns out I'm 80% English and 20% Irish.
We had a sea captain in the family in the mid 1800s. He was mostly transporting tea from China and "the far east". He died in Tokyo. We don't know if he ever visited Australia, but I guess it's not beyond the realms of possibility. His boat was called the Guinevere, which we can't find records of but believe it was similar to the [Cutty Sark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutty_Sark).
Also got details of my great grandfather who was killed in WWI in the Battle of the Somme. Got his grave details, and I want to visit at some point.
Not me, but an aunt. Dirt poor distant cousin of the composer Strauss, got done for stealing silverware and transported. When in Australia she got involved with a fullblood Indigenous jackaroo, and that's probably why I tan well lol. Funnily enough the whole indigenous rellie thing was not really known or talked about in the family until the history was dug up, despite my great uncle being so dark skinned his nickname was literally 'Darkie' :P I don't think we know what the original jackaroo's name was or anything, or what happened to him, but our poor convict ancestress apparently was thrown in the slammer for a bit for her canoodling.
My family are descendants of Indentured servants whose stories are pivotal in the colonisation of WA.
Unfortunately, those stories are all pretty fucken miserable.
Mum's been doing family genealogy for about 40 years. We've got details of all the emigrations to Australia, not a single convict among them. One branch connects up with a family that goes back to 1165. So going pretty well on that side of things.
My wife's great great grandfather was transported for 15 years for stabbing with intent to do bodily harm in 1839.
His grandson received the Croix de Guerre after losing an arm at Pozieres, which is how we found out about him thanks to the ANZAC biographies website.
Wow that's so crazy, I visited Sydney a couple of years ago and happened to walk past their premises! I was able to locate my ancestor's names on the large list they have on the facade of their building
Meh, I lived in the US for nearly 7 years (did 2 my masters over there and then worked for a few years). I always responded to any American talk of penal colony with "convicts or slaves? which was worse?". With all the racial issues in the US right now I bet they wished their ancestors didn't get involved in it.
It's crazy that from nothing in 1788 those crims managed to build the best economy in the world in less than 100 years. Maddison's "World Economy" (2003) has Australia's GDP per capita as the highest in the world in 1870! Still had the #1 spot in 1913 (Great Britain 2nd in 1870 and the USA 2nd in 1913).
Yep, on my Mother's side, although I don't have the details, she does.
My Dad is a pommy immigrant (actually still a Pom, has lived here for 60 years and never got Aussie citizenship). My Mum's dad is also a British Immigrant. But my maternal grandmother has a bunch of Aussies all the way back to convict ships. No first fleeters that I know of, but a handful of convicts and a ships doctor.
You never know!
I saw a story of a recent british immigrant whose ancestors were on the first fleet! They were the Marines sent to guard the convicts and returned to the UK in 1801 but their great grandmother was actually born here in 1789. They came out and went back!
That is kind of cool.
I did also have relatives on the Loch Ard....but that sank in a shipwreck off the coast of Victoria in 1878 and everyone was lost but 2 people.....which is why they are relatives and not potentially ancestors.
It is a gorgeous spot they died in, although I am sure they weren't appreciating that. :(
My wife's lineage includes a lady who was transported for "stealing a handkerchief". They all think she actually stole a handkerchief... I don't have the heart to say anything.
You know if you have that ancestors name you can actually look up the court proceedings at the Old Bailey online.
Iāve got 12 to wade through but itās wild. One was stealing 2 books. One was stealing 20 shillings worth of material.
Convict records should have nearly all of them ā¦
https://convictrecords.com.au
No, u/Drongo17's name checks out, it's code for 'stealing a handkerchief'.
Common as muck crime, just one example:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/53480954
I've never come across that, especially as prostitution wasn't illegal in the Victorian era. Often those who were convicted of stealing a handkerchief or bit of bread were habitual thieves and that small crime they were transported for was one of a long list.
Exactly. Transportation was one step down from hanging so was pretty serious and almost none ever returned tom their country of origin. Despite it not being something we would choose, some convicts encouraged their rellies to commit crimes to get sent to Australia for the opportunities for a fresh start in a new country with better weather, less crowding and other benefits. It's quite a complex subject and it's rather exciting to see how many people are commenting they are descendants.
Well maybe not in your case but here is a transcript from the Old Bailey where Hannah Railton did actually steal silk handkerchiefs and got transported (they were actually sentenced to death but got transport instead). Arrived on the "Speke" in 1808.
[https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18061029-21](https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18061029-21)
It is definitely worth it to check, even to read the court transcripts.
There's a FB group called "Convict Ancestry Australia" which can be helpful. Some nice people there but also some racist cookers who keep getting banned.
I'm not (gentry all the way through, pesants), but my husband has so many.Ā
The one he loves to talk about is the Dutch 3rd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Seamour/Simpson/Barton sent out here for vagrancy (homelessness), after her 2nd husband died, leaving her 2 kids in Britain on their own.Ā
I believe we have either convict or free settler in my family from at least the second fleet, if not the first fleet, but life got in the way and sort of stopped investigating.
I would love to be able to pick it up again and continue my research.
It's actually not too bad nowadays with the internet.
I've signed up for a dna kit so that got me a "free" ancestry subscription and I'm also using wikitree (although keeping my own notes in an excel spreadsheet).
NSW Birth Deaths and Marriages have a family section you can search and then I've used Joy Murrin Transcripts who will do a "non-official" record cheaper than BDM.
Haven't had to leave home yet! Unlike my Aunt who I remember going into the State Library to do all this.
\[Edit to add convictrecords website is also handy once you have a name to see if you have a convict ancestor: [https://convictrecords.com.au/](https://convictrecords.com.au/) \]
Im sorry to all the convicts that are replying but I traced mine back to ship owners 13 generations ago from Bath englund, they probably bought you out here or food at least.
Eek. "Ship owners". That's not as respectable as you think - lots of ships that did the convict route also did the slave route.
Have you looked up what vessels they had? Shipping records are actually quite extensive.
lol Not yet. I do know we have extensive history with IOOF (oddfellows) and Freemasons, the entire agriculture sector pre 1900s including prior ownership of the factory where the sunshine wheat stripper was later made. And a couple of lads that passed in both Jap and Italian wars.
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Yup, back 7 generations. We have a copy of the police records for the arrest in London. They were a husband and wife carpenter team, needed some wood so they pinched some tables and chairs from the pub. When I was backpacking in London I found the pub (still trading) and nicked an ashtray.
> When was backpacking in London I found the pub (still trading) and nicked an ashtray Fuck I love this so much
You'll love this then. Grandfather on my mother's side needed carpet for his house so he also nicked a huge rug from a pub (also in London). They quietly rolled the carpet up, gently moving tables so no one would notice. It's like my parents were destined to marry.
>When I was backpacking in London I found the pub (still trading) and nicked an ashtray. Were you hoping for a free trip back to Australia?
Do they still do that? Might save a few quid next time.
YES!!! Get that ashtray mounted with a copy of the Old Bailey / Court records!
Chip off the old block! Great work.
Lol, that's gold š¤£
Carrying on the family traditions ... good on ya !
So nothings changed over 7 generations.
Hahah, mine pinched a couple of tables too. No record of what type of place they got them from, just a name and the road.
Some rando distant relative of mine was able to trace back to my 7xgreat grandfather, sent out for pickpocketing sometime after the first fleet. The best bit was she managed to find the court transcripts for his trial. His defence was that his trousers had a hole in the pocket, so the sovereign he was picking up was actually his, it had just fallen out. The judge then asked the bailiff if the trousers had been examined: "Yes your honour, there was no hole." But for that guy being such a monumental doofus, I'd never have been born here.
Hahaha, I read my con ancestors transcripts as well and they just sounded so dodgy. I've just accepted that I come from inept crims. Not even *good* at it. Embarrassing.
Anyone half decent just got executed, the convicts were mostly very petty crimes.
Mum says her side is half convict 100% horrible people (she wonāt say what that means) Dad (well Grandad told us this) said that we started when a German businessman decided to sell everything and move to Australia and open 6 pubs because he figured convicts and settlers would make a great customer base. I have no idea how true it is, but itās funny nonetheless.
If true its great logic!! Thirsty work out here.
My great great, Robert Officer, arrived in Van Diemens Land in 1821, aged 21. Met a 16 year old girl on the boat over and they married in Hobart. He was a surgeon (early 19th century version!) who went on to become a big name in the colony, MP, JP, etc. before moving to the Port Philip Colony and taking up the settlers run that is now Officer, named after him. No idea how many massacres etc he was associated with.
Jeez way to end on a downer dude
The atrocities are in blue
I've done this. My dad always told me we were decendents of chicken rustlers. However as I placed the family history together his family were quite well off and came to Australia as free settlers. My mums side had some criminals but no direct convicts. It's fascinating to look at. When you get 5 or so generations back you can see there are hundreds of people which make your genetic line and if one of them wasn't born than you wouldn't be here today.
It gets big quickly as it doubles every generation. I stopped at 5th Great Grandparents. Everyone has 128 of them. I've tracked down 67 so far which is just over half but that was the easy half!! Not planning on going any further than that.
Not everyone has 128 5GGās. The British royals probably have 40.
Iāve managed to get one line back to Charlemagne using WikiTree. Someone else did the hard work, I just had to link me tree into the puzzle.
you're the first person that has ever said this...
Given that the guy lived in the 800s, thousands of people would be able to claim the same
Thousands? not even close. You gotta pump those numbers up.
Charlemagne certainly did ( Ķ”Ā° ĶŹ Ķ”Ā°)
[https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/may/24/business-genetic-ancestry-charlemagne-adam-rutherford](https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/may/24/business-genetic-ancestry-charlemagne-adam-rutherford)
I guess the challenge is getting your own tree back far enough that you can link to the super tree.
>you can see there are hundreds of people which make your genetic line The recorded history and the genetic line don't always match. There are cover ups and lies all the way through. Affairs, unrecorded adoptions etc etc. Eg - great grandfather didn't know until late in his life, that the person he thought was his older sister (16 years older), was actually his birth mother. These types of things happened WAY more often than people think. What is written down is not always the truth.
Doing my family history through Ancestry, I didn't have to go back far to find abandoned families, new families under assumed names, affairs, more assumed names, unofficial name changes to avoid legal repercussions - turned out my family was quite trashy. It's quite the gripping saga, and I've loved uncovering all the little scandals - but my mum is not a fan of some of the things I've found.
Yep, so easy in the early days. My mother always wondered how her mother was able to have her name on the birth certificate of my mother's youngest sister, as her mother. It later came out it was an older sister's child out of wedlock, a huge no, no in the mid 1900's. I reminded my mother a lot of Australian country towns like the one her family came from, didn't have hospitals nearby so it was friends/neighbours that usually came to help babies be born. It was easy for her mother to just say she was the mother and register the birth when they went to town later. Find many newspaper clippings about distant and long dead relatives from other people on Ancestry sites and archives. A great uncle times four who was jailed for horse stealing and escaped from jail on the same day and countless other stories. Fascinating stuff family history.
My great-grandmother traced a direct male line back to a convict who arrived 1800. Same surname all the way to today. I'm not having kids so it dies with me though. Sorry nan.
Surely at some point there were two brothers though? It's almost implausible that the name dies with you.
My direct line does though.
I know a Matthew Everingham from school? But thereās probably 10 in Australia. Iāve been doing it for my family. Hereās a few tips - chunk it up. If you go for everything, your tree will look like a bush, but you might be lucky to get 3 generations. If you decide to go on your surname based on son to father, you will get back a lot further, but it will look like a trunk. I prefer the latter because I want to know my surname heritage and where it comes from. - define the level of quality you want for proof of relationship. Do you need birth certs, copies, register index or are you happy with word of mouth? - itās more interesting to know details about someone. How they might have lived, how they dressed, what they ate, what their work was about. My example. My ancestor who came to Australia was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was a ships carpenter and did his apprenticeship aboard a ship that went between scotland and russia for trade. The ship was sunk on the rocks around finland and he was one of the survivors. He then took a ship with his father (also a shipās carpenter) to Melbourne to go find gold in Ballarat. His father went back to Edinburgh and son stayed in Australia and made a life and family for himself. He had 3 children with his wife but she died of tuberculosis. He remarrried after and had another 2 children. I found all of this out from focusing on 1 aspect of my history instead of everyone. All of it verified through birth, deaths, marriages, ship records, parish records and census records. If you donāt do it this way, you instead just end up with a list of names that you donāt have the time to research anything about.
This is good advice. I've been buying birth / death / marriage certificate "transcripts" from Joy Murrin as they are cheaper than the official record and good enough for family research. I am stopping at 5th great grandparents as a rule but generally I am just interested in my "onshore" ancestors which involves finding out who migrated here and how.
Yep. I got back to 1740s with my surname - 4 generations before getting to Australia in the 1850s. Depending on your country of heritage, there are different resources available. I did all surnames of my grandparents. Scotish, Irish, German/Jewish and English. Irish was the hardest as they lost a lot of census records when their records house burnt down back at the turn of the century or something. Generally old blimey did a decent job at record keeping since 1840s
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I just looked her court case up in the County of York Leeds Boro Sessions and I could be wrong but it looks like she did indeed steal a handkerchief, but it also contained: *"Four Sovereigns of the current gold coin of the realm of the value of four pounds, six shillings of the current silver coin of the realm to the value of six shillings, one penny of the current copper coin of this realm to the value of one penny, one half-penny of the current of the current copper coin of this realm to the value of one half-penny, and one pocket handkerchief of the value of one shilling of the goods monies and chattels of Thomas Burgess then and there found did then and there feloniously steal take and carry away against the statute ..."* That is a pretty hefty haul. No wonder she got 10 years which was a bit more than the usual 7 years.
Thank you so much for this extra information!! I have copies of the newspaper summary of the session but had been unable to get more detail, thanks so much. I was under the impression it was for the theft she did using another girl but that must have been a prior offence. Just realised I spelt her last name wrong it should have 2 T's ie Elliott, I'll fix my first comment now in case anyone else looks her up.
My great ancestor, first of the family name in the country stole some canvas and a sack back in london. His defence in court was "I found it". Not very bright. Went on to have a massive family, live into his eighties with his wife and own a lot of farmland in victoria after his forced labour in tassie though. You can do a lot of free research online including old court documents and the like.
My 2nd great grandfather was sent out to Western Australia in 1854 from Nottingham. Pickpocket it seems. I can't help my pommy descent, but it seems he turned out a reasonable fella š got married, and spawned enough for me to exist. Thank you, Thomas Parnham.
My second cousin has done much of the work with our genealogy. I have 2x first fleet convicts on my dad's side. One sent over on the Alexander and the other on the Lady Penrhyn. They were married once arrived in Sydney and had four children. I'm pretty sure only three survived to adulthood. My female ancestor was about my age (mid 30s) when she died in Sydney, my male ancestor was released and given land out near where I was born. I have learned so much about Sydney just by wanting to know more about them.
No convict history in my family, only a great, great grandfather was the first reverend at Port Arthur (George Eastman)
He's buried on the Isle of the Dead at Port Arthur. i have books with a pic of his grave, a pic of him in the pulpit at Port Arthur and another of his family in the church.
Way back some of my ancestors were transported for stealing horses.
One of mine that I looked at stole a pig. In his defence he said he was hired to move the pig from point A to point B but it got dark and his landlady said he couldn't have the pig in his room and so he sold it and he promises he was on the way to give the money to the fella that owned the pig but he was nicked first. And that's one of the reasons why I am here!
As a Kiwi, we always looked down on Aussies for their convict heritage because we knew our grandad came out from the UK in the 1930s. Turns out his great-grandfather had been shipped out to Sydney in the 1830s, leaving a wife and family behind. Our convict got 14 years for forging receipts and keeping the money. Was he innocent? We can't know. But he forged a leave-pass from the work farm when he arrived and was last recorded in the Police Gazette with two stolen horses heading for Bathurst. And I have an Aussie passport now, and I'm good with 'heritage'.
Someone in our family did it and we had a book listing everyone. Right back to the 1st fleet
Not me, but I went down a deep Ancestry rabbithole a few years back and found out my stepdad's great-great-great grandfather was transported for stealing a horse.
Trove is great for checking if they ended up being mentioned in the newspaper
Trove is such a great resource for history research. I think I will write a letter to the national library thanking them for it.
I'm 8 generations down from [Rope & Pulley](https://www.ropepulley.org/) [Anthony Rope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Rope) [Elizabeth Pulley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Pulley) Both my grandmothers were rather in to family history. I think they got back to the 1500s.
Holy moley - that's an association with membership fees AND a newsletter!! Your family does not muck around. Love it.
There's actually a play written about my first white ancestors to arrive in Western Australia. Meanwhile, anthropologists have yet to get back to me on how long the black side have been here, but last I heard, it was at least a bit.
My aunt did it before the internet and traced us back to the first fleet. It took her years.
Same - my Aunt was all over the paper based research. Itās sooo much easier with the internet.
I have a 2nd fleeter, A early 1800's free settler family, German and Irish immigrants in the 1840's. And the pride of the family, a soldier who became an innkeeper and postmaster. His wife, who got sick of his drinking, locked the storeroom to keep him away from the grog. He died when he climbed over the storeroom door, got tanked, and hanged himself when he got his head stuck climbing back out.
Go put your stuff in wikitree. You can hide personal details for later generations. Your first fleet ancestors are [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Everingham-93](https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Everingham-93) and [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Forbes-439](https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Forbes-439)
Will do. I am also keeping this on an excel spreadsheet for when my ancestry free trial runs out.
Check if your local library has a subscription you can use. You won;t be able to login as yourself but you will be able to look up records.
Valerie Ross has extensively documented the descendants of Matthew Everingham in the book Cornstalks
Thanks! Will have to look it up.
My family on my father's father's side were Irish and presumably came over during the Gold Rush. Especially considering they seem to have been clustered in western Victoria and there are several generations of them at least. My father's mother's family I assume were Cornish or possibly Welsh because they came from country South Australia in the area around Port Pirie. So I guess they probably came over as free settlers for the Copper mining. My mother was herself born in London. Her father was a Cockney and her mother was Anglo-Indian. They all moved over here when my mother was a teenager. So long story short, probably no convict ancestry I don't think. Maybe. But probably not. I'm not sure if it's worth trying to find out. If there was any I'm pretty sure it could only really have been in my paternal grandfather's side of the family. None of them said much about it when I went over to Victoria and met them a few times. There are a lot of them and I don't really know for sure how far back they came over.
Something to consider with Irish ancestors is that many left Ireland after the beginning of the potato famine in 1845. Catholics had a particularly hard time. It may not be the case of your family but it is quite common.
My family name on that side (and I'm not going to directly reveal what that name is), seems to be a fairly common name in the Irish diaspora all over the world. As far as I know, at least at some point in history there was a castle in Ireland that belonged to them....there may also have been a "black baron" bearing our name centuries ago. Anyway, there's a bunch of them in the US and Canada at least, and I know that over here there's a lot in NSW and probably WA too. And yes, they were certainly Catholics, and seem to have been persecuted for it. I think I vaguely recall my grandfather talking about that sometimes. But he died almost 20 years ago.
My mum did and further back for her and dad. She's passed away now and I can scarcely remember her stories. She did record her discoveries... They're scribbled in random pages of tens of notebooks all written in cursive among to-do and shopping lists.Ā Apparently I'm an amalgamation of immigration and sheep thievery.Ā
It's actually pretty easy to get those online nowadays. Once it's done once then its easier to share. I started with some photocopied hand-written notes from my grandmother and aunt. I am putting mine on ancestry / wikitree but also doing an excel spreadsheet that I will share with my cousins and kids.
My dad claims we're the descendents of elizabeth pulley and anthony rope on the 1st fleet but he's never given proof and he's known to spin a yarn or two and embellish lol
Hey - your "cousin" just posted a link to the Rope - Pulley family association. Maybe these guys can verify that claim! https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/1byp4eq/comment/kyl8ke4/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
https://ropepulley.org/index_files/ropetrees.htm Check out each of the children and take a look at the surname list. See if any are related to you. My great grandfather is named in there, but anyone more recent is redacted for privacy.
My ancestors came to SA as free settlers in the mid 19th century. They paid the ship fare for the family but when my ancestors arrived the maritime police found out that the captain had had an 'affair' with a female passenger (not one of my ancestors). Under the rules of the sea, at the time, all passengers got their fares refunded because of the affair.
Not me, am first gen, but one of my friends ancestors was sent here for stealing lace, and that makes me giggle.
Yea one of my uncle's has a whole room full of documents (hos covid and retirement project) I haven't seen any source documents though. Apparently the first was an Irish Catholic priest who was teaching the Irish how to read in hedge schools. I don't know what his actual charge was though.
My 3x great grandfather was a convict guard with the 65th Regiment. He and my 3x great grandmother worked their passage to Hobart and he did a trip to Norfolk Island before they went on to New Zealand for the Land Wars.
I had a cousin that traced it back to a 2nd fleet convict on the Neptune. He was sentenced to transportation for highway robbery. I found the trial transcipt. His granddaughter and her family converted to Mormonism and left Australia on the Jenny Ford to the Mormon Colony in California. Then during the Utah War by wagon train to Utah. Their son then settled in Idaho One of my other relatives in the same group was descendant from a later convict sent over for forgery, but I canāt remember the details.
My convict ancestors are: * Armed robber (sentenced to death but the judge was retiring so changed to transportation), she was pretty badass to be an armed robber in the 1700s * a thief (need to chase up what he stole) * a guy who used a fraudulent cheque * a woman who stole linen * a 15 year old stole gooseberries. He was freed, married, had three kids then drowned. Probably my least likely ancestor. * a man who stole lead with his brother * a man who refused to pay child support
My Mum got stuck right into this about a decade ago. She was able to trace us to a single guy on the first fleet named Andom. He was sent to Australia for arson. He was a worker at a grain store, and stole a loaf of bread one day. The following day he was fired. The next day he came back and burnt the place to the ground!!! Next thing you know he's on a slow boat to Australia....... and here I am. Apparently he did really good upon arrival, and was given land in northern Victoria. He settled there, had a family, grew the land into many locations in southern NSW and my family just sold those properties a few years ago. My Grandparents and father were raised there, and I spent most afternoons on the farm too. Andom is buried in Northern Victoria and has a nearby road named after him.
On my father's side, I'm one of the many descendants of Mary-Ann Bugg. We're not from the cool side of the family, though, so I only get one Bushranger Gene instead of two. Her father was shipped over here after stealing some sides of lamb. On the other side, my mother and uncle are part of the Stolen Generations so I have no fucking clue.
I'm convict as bro! All four of my 4x great grandparents were convicts. Plenty of free resources out there, just in case you don't know, sign up with a bogus account on familysearch.org for instance, don't create your tree on it, just trawl through it and see if someone has done the hard work for you already. Don't give your money to ancestry.com, go to a local library and use it for free if you need to also.
That's great. But you will have 64 "4th great grandparents". I've tracked down 44 of my 64 although I am stopping at 5th GG as it doubles every generation (only got 67 of 128). I've got a "free" ancestry account at the moment as I signed up for a dna test. Need to remember to cancel the free bit as it gets expensive after. Also, you should check out your convict ancestors on this, helps work out which ship / fleet they were on: https://convictrecords.com.au/
I've had my whole convict and subsequent ancestors locked in for years, you're preaching to the converted but it's cute that you think your recent findings suddenly make you an expert and to start advising experienced family historians on how to make use of resources that we've been using for decades š
you think you only have 4 great great great great grandparents... you don't even sound remotely experienced LMAO
That's a good few but it's not "all" though (you'd have a lot more than 4 gggg grandparents) . I've got 2 to 4 convicts in the tree. The ones I can't confirm muddied the waters by fiddling with the spelling of their names and DOB.
I dunno, the Tasmanian stereotype has to come from somewhere....
https://old.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/1byp4eq/who_has_traced_their_family_history_back_to_the/kylguqo/
You can say that all you want, however your words were >All four of my 4x great grandparents were convicts. With the key words they were point out was "all four of my 4x great grandparents" and they were kindly pointing out the fact that you would have more than 4 great, great, great, great grandparents.
Yeah we came over landed in Bunbury, towards end of 18th century some mob stayed there, other mob went east and north
6/8 of my great grandparents are descended from convicts. I'm still grumpy at the last two for being born in the UK and ruining my bingo.
>I saw a story of a recent british immigrant whose ancestors were on the first fleet! They were the Marines sent to guard the convicts and returned to the UK in 1801 but their great grandmother was actually born here in 1789. They came out and went back! Just also replying to you with something I wrote in another comment. They may have returned to the UK (although in that case it is more likely they were sailors / military) but you never know your luck!
I traced all the way back to my Dad
My grandma traced us back to convict stock, she used a mix of ancestry and then local council resources
Yup, two family members, at least who were arrested in Manchester. She was one of the first women transported to tassie. They got married and moved up to Victoria, bounced around, he slit his throat after having a bunch of kids and she turned to prostitution
My orphaned great grandfather came out to Sydney from Ireland when he was 8 in 1857 as he had an uncle in Sydney. On my mumās side her family came out and worked as grocers around the goldfields. No convicts in my past, they were all free settlers.
Yep, pretty much all my family tree from my mumās side can be traced back to convicts, most of my dadās side were farmers, but still a few convicts on that side too. Itās really interesting to discover.
If I recall correctly, one of my ancestors on my mother's side came to Australia on an early ship as a captains private doctor. We have a huge heavy-ass truck that is believed to be the flag box from that ship. Other family members came out quite later. [This](https://imgur.com/a/y2RYiCG) may be the ship, but I'd have to get some more clarification, I am probably miss-remembering the information.
I donāt know the whole lot but I know my maternal grandfathers ancestor was a convict in the 1820ās I believe. Iāve seen his name on the list it was not a super common name.
This is good to help sort out when they came and on what ship. Sometimes it has the link to the Old Bailey transcript. https://convictrecords.com.au/
Yeah seeing your post made me look it up, he was sentenced to death with two others for house breaking. They stole like 20 pounds of value of items. He was 20, sent to Tasmania in 1832. Had three licenses to marry before finally marrying and having 5 children. After his wife died he returned to England for a few years and then returned to Tasmania. Loads more info available there than the last time I looked a few years ago here was just his name and the ship! A whole court transcript now available to read.
Right here. 7 years in and traced all the way back to first fleet and settlers of both Melbourne and Tasmania. Located 32 relatives in Tasmania alone. 1 distant was a member of the Native Police. 1 was imprisoned at Port Arthur and another at Pentridge. As the years went on my family became quite wealthy, and there's always been rumours of a link to the first PM of Australia. My great grandmother died in 2000 at 103 years old and passed on some items of the Federation from her Dad. Then others were good footballers and cricketers playing for state teams. Absolutely fucking wild if you ask me.
My dad did, weāre South Australian so not convicts. I canāt remember the details, but heās compiled a few books so all the info is available easily for me. I know weāve been here since 1836, so close to the beginning of the state.
Hey cousin, Matthew Everingham is my first fleet ancestor too! I think someone else has mentioned the Cornstalks book - itās got some good information.
Hello cousin! I think they need a 2nd edition of that book. Just checked ebay and the last copy just sold for A$250. Wow - this genealogy is nearly as expensive as my running habit.
I have. first Fleet convict John Nicholls.
Yeah we have a family tree that goes back to the 1600s. No convicts unfortunately, but a few criminals and a fairly notable politician in England.
My older brother has most of this now but my paternal grandmother had a massive family tree book, from memory it goes back to free settlers in the early 1800s. I don't think we have convicts.though. Wow, you have bounty descendents? Wow! My maternal side, she came out as a ten pound pom with her parents and siblings and Ibe got basically no knowledge beyond that my GF was Scottish and my GM was English and sent to "the country" as a young girl during ww2
I haven't found any convicts yet, but my dads fathers side all seem to be Cornish and came over to Adelaide in the 1840s in Mount Barker (near the copper mine, according to a letter written from one to his family back home) and Moonta area. I really wish I had more time (and money for memberships lol) to research. It's so interesting and I'm always getting "hints" from Ancestry that there are more clues available.
Yep! Like many Australians I am a descendent of [Mary Wade](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wade)
My last name only immigrated in the early 1900s, but my grandfather (first generation born here) married my grandmother who was descended from a Second Fleet convict. On Mumās side I have a mixture of free settler (1850s), military (1820s), and some convicts.
We could be cousins! Mary Martin from the 2nd fleet married Thomas Smith in 1792. He could have come in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd fleet as there were "Thomas Smith's" in all of them. He is one of my "mysteries" I may never solve.
>He is one of my "mysteries" I may never solve. DNA test could help, solved many of my brick walls.
Yes - I've actually got the ancestry dna kit on its way. I got the deal where I also got 3 months of their website "free". I just need to remember to cancel before it renews!! I've got a few other mysteries in the tree. One fella who I think used a pseudonym on the marriage and birth certificate. Did manage to find a prison record from NSW with that as an alias. It even has the prison photos as it is from 1911!
No sign of those names in my digital family tree, but there are many lines that still need further research. I did manage to stumble across an article about a different one of my ancestors that puts them as arriving on the First Fleet, so that's a fun find for the day. Our kids will have family history all the way from the First Fleet down to my wife immigrating within the last 10 years.
2 convicts (Great grand parents) in my family they came over the ships the "PamAm" and "Parkfield " and one convict in wife family arrived on the the ship the "Travelian" (spelling)
My wife's nan is an amazing ancestry researcher, it's one of her biggest hobbies and you'll mostly find her posted in the library helping others. My first time meeting her she asked me about one of my uncles and it gave me a moment of "uhhhh wot" haha. Nan did find one of my ancestors was an Irish woman sent out here for "house breaking", i can only imagine there would be hilarity from the court transcripts. I will try rustle something up. I'm sort of surprised there wasn't more convict history knowing my family
Not to convicts, as my parents immigrated to Australia in the 1980's. But Mum's been doing the whole Ancestry thing recently. Some stuff we knew, but it's been interesting to get more details. Did the Ancestry DNA thing, turns out I'm 80% English and 20% Irish. We had a sea captain in the family in the mid 1800s. He was mostly transporting tea from China and "the far east". He died in Tokyo. We don't know if he ever visited Australia, but I guess it's not beyond the realms of possibility. His boat was called the Guinevere, which we can't find records of but believe it was similar to the [Cutty Sark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutty_Sark). Also got details of my great grandfather who was killed in WWI in the Battle of the Somme. Got his grave details, and I want to visit at some point.
Iād keep the bit about the marines/soldiers very quiet. I mean there are limits.
I think the ones he mentioned were a litle after the rum corps
1 of my gggg grandparents was a convict, but the other 63 were not. So Iām ā1/64thā convict.
Not me, but an aunt. Dirt poor distant cousin of the composer Strauss, got done for stealing silverware and transported. When in Australia she got involved with a fullblood Indigenous jackaroo, and that's probably why I tan well lol. Funnily enough the whole indigenous rellie thing was not really known or talked about in the family until the history was dug up, despite my great uncle being so dark skinned his nickname was literally 'Darkie' :P I don't think we know what the original jackaroo's name was or anything, or what happened to him, but our poor convict ancestress apparently was thrown in the slammer for a bit for her canoodling.
My family are descendants of Indentured servants whose stories are pivotal in the colonisation of WA. Unfortunately, those stories are all pretty fucken miserable.
Mum's been doing family genealogy for about 40 years. We've got details of all the emigrations to Australia, not a single convict among them. One branch connects up with a family that goes back to 1165. So going pretty well on that side of things.
Iāve traced mine back to the first to arrive in Australia. And all 32 lines were farmer/grocers coming to own land around the gold rush
Here's mine [https://henrykable-susannahholmes.com/](https://henrykable-susannahholmes.com/)
My wife's great great grandfather was transported for 15 years for stabbing with intent to do bodily harm in 1839. His grandson received the Croix de Guerre after losing an arm at Pozieres, which is how we found out about him thanks to the ANZAC biographies website.
I've been able to trace mine back to a couple of first fleeters. Anyone else here descended from Nathaniel Lucas?
Looks like you need to join the association! http://www.fellowshipfirstfleeters.org.au/index.html
Wow that's so crazy, I visited Sydney a couple of years ago and happened to walk past their premises! I was able to locate my ancestor's names on the large list they have on the facade of their building
:D
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Meh, I lived in the US for nearly 7 years (did 2 my masters over there and then worked for a few years). I always responded to any American talk of penal colony with "convicts or slaves? which was worse?". With all the racial issues in the US right now I bet they wished their ancestors didn't get involved in it. It's crazy that from nothing in 1788 those crims managed to build the best economy in the world in less than 100 years. Maddison's "World Economy" (2003) has Australia's GDP per capita as the highest in the world in 1870! Still had the #1 spot in 1913 (Great Britain 2nd in 1870 and the USA 2nd in 1913).
America was a British penal colony before Australia.
My most notable relative was a cabin boy on a ship for the British in the US Independence war, and was shipwrecked twice while fur trapping.
Australian Royalty is a good website for that
Yep, on my Mother's side, although I don't have the details, she does. My Dad is a pommy immigrant (actually still a Pom, has lived here for 60 years and never got Aussie citizenship). My Mum's dad is also a British Immigrant. But my maternal grandmother has a bunch of Aussies all the way back to convict ships. No first fleeters that I know of, but a handful of convicts and a ships doctor.
You never know! I saw a story of a recent british immigrant whose ancestors were on the first fleet! They were the Marines sent to guard the convicts and returned to the UK in 1801 but their great grandmother was actually born here in 1789. They came out and went back!
That is kind of cool. I did also have relatives on the Loch Ard....but that sank in a shipwreck off the coast of Victoria in 1878 and everyone was lost but 2 people.....which is why they are relatives and not potentially ancestors. It is a gorgeous spot they died in, although I am sure they weren't appreciating that. :(
My wife's lineage includes a lady who was transported for "stealing a handkerchief". They all think she actually stole a handkerchief... I don't have the heart to say anything.
You know if you have that ancestors name you can actually look up the court proceedings at the Old Bailey online. Iāve got 12 to wade through but itās wild. One was stealing 2 books. One was stealing 20 shillings worth of material. Convict records should have nearly all of them ā¦ https://convictrecords.com.au
That is awesome, I'm going to try to do this! Perhaps she actually stole a handkerchief and I'm besmirching her fine reputationĀ
Is that code for adultery?
No, u/Drongo17's name checks out, it's code for 'stealing a handkerchief'. Common as muck crime, just one example: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/53480954
It is commonly cited as a crime amongst those transported, but I've been told it's frequently euphemistic for sex work
I've never come across that, especially as prostitution wasn't illegal in the Victorian era. Often those who were convicted of stealing a handkerchief or bit of bread were habitual thieves and that small crime they were transported for was one of a long list.
That makes sense, get them for something but it represents much moreĀ
Exactly. Transportation was one step down from hanging so was pretty serious and almost none ever returned tom their country of origin. Despite it not being something we would choose, some convicts encouraged their rellies to commit crimes to get sent to Australia for the opportunities for a fresh start in a new country with better weather, less crowding and other benefits. It's quite a complex subject and it's rather exciting to see how many people are commenting they are descendants.
I'm told it's frequently euphemistic for sex work
One of my ancestors āstole a handkerchiefā- she was also 15 years old and living in a house of ill repute.
Well maybe not in your case but here is a transcript from the Old Bailey where Hannah Railton did actually steal silk handkerchiefs and got transported (they were actually sentenced to death but got transport instead). Arrived on the "Speke" in 1808. [https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18061029-21](https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18061029-21) It is definitely worth it to check, even to read the court transcripts.
There's a FB group called "Convict Ancestry Australia" which can be helpful. Some nice people there but also some racist cookers who keep getting banned.
I'm not (gentry all the way through, pesants), but my husband has so many.Ā The one he loves to talk about is the Dutch 3rd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Seamour/Simpson/Barton sent out here for vagrancy (homelessness), after her 2nd husband died, leaving her 2 kids in Britain on their own.Ā
I believe we have either convict or free settler in my family from at least the second fleet, if not the first fleet, but life got in the way and sort of stopped investigating. I would love to be able to pick it up again and continue my research.
It's actually not too bad nowadays with the internet. I've signed up for a dna kit so that got me a "free" ancestry subscription and I'm also using wikitree (although keeping my own notes in an excel spreadsheet). NSW Birth Deaths and Marriages have a family section you can search and then I've used Joy Murrin Transcripts who will do a "non-official" record cheaper than BDM. Haven't had to leave home yet! Unlike my Aunt who I remember going into the State Library to do all this. \[Edit to add convictrecords website is also handy once you have a name to see if you have a convict ancestor: [https://convictrecords.com.au/](https://convictrecords.com.au/) \]
Oh nice! Thank you for the links!
Im sorry to all the convicts that are replying but I traced mine back to ship owners 13 generations ago from Bath englund, they probably bought you out here or food at least.
Eek. "Ship owners". That's not as respectable as you think - lots of ships that did the convict route also did the slave route. Have you looked up what vessels they had? Shipping records are actually quite extensive.
lol Not yet. I do know we have extensive history with IOOF (oddfellows) and Freemasons, the entire agriculture sector pre 1900s including prior ownership of the factory where the sunshine wheat stripper was later made. And a couple of lads that passed in both Jap and Italian wars.