Articles About Convicts
New Convict Collections – Just In Time for Australia Day!
We have just added two key collections to the world’s largest online collection of Australian convict records.
For Australians exploring convict history, the NSW Convict Indents, 1788-1842 provides the ideal starting point, as all convicts on ships transported to Australia were listed in an indent. Details such as name, trial date/location, and sentence are available, with later… Read more
Scurvy, Seasickness and Scorpion Bites: Royal Navy Medical Journals
We have just launched two new historical record collections which offer a peek into daily life aboard Australia-bound English convict ships.
These collections are journals that were penned by ships’ medical officers, who were required to keep a record of all patients, treatments and outcomes during a sea voyage.
UK Royal Navy Medical Journals, 1815-17 and UK… Read more
List of Convicts with Particulars 1788-1842
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 for 23,000… Read more
New South Wales Registers of Convicts’ Applications to Marry 1826-1851
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 not… Read more
Convict Savings Bank Books 1824-1886
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
From Convict to Free Citizen: Certificates of Freedom, Tickets of Leave and Pardons
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 a… Read more
England & Wales Criminal Registers 1791-1892
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 at… Read more
Convict Transportation Registers 1788-1868
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 Convict Transportation… Read more
Early convict butts reveal ‘license to play’ for well-performing prisoners
We recently launched online for the first time the more than 42,000 Australian convict records in the NSW Tickets of Leave Butts 1824-1867. The collection includes Registers of Tickets of Leave 1824-1827, which offers prisoner details in ledger format, and Ticket of Leave Butts 1827-1867.
The butts were essentially copies of the ‘Tickets’ given to each… Read more
Search for your convict ancestors FREE until 31st January
Ancestry.com.au’s collection of more than 2.3 million convict records will be available to search for FREE to the public for 11 days beginning January 20 in honour of Australia Day.
With more than four million Australians having descended from convicts1, approximately one in five can claim convict history and will likely have an ancestor included in… Read more
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