Piracy was rife off England’s south coast right up into the 18th century. Dorset’s coves, caves and sandy beaches were the perfect hiding place for buccaneers and brigands and their ill-gotten loot. That means you stand a good chance of spotting these seadogs in our three new criminal collections.

Whether your family’s black sheep committed their crimes on land or sea, our Calendars of Prisoners, 1854-1945, take you back to their trials – and often include detailed accounts of their offences. Then our Transportation Records, 1730-1842, and Prison Admission and Discharge Registers, 1782–1901, let you uncover how they coped with their punishment.

But our new records aren’t all about burglars and bandits. There’s plenty of opportunity to learn about ordinary law-abiding folk as well – and gain a rare insight into their everyday lives.

Our Jury Lists, 1719–1922, reveal the very people who upheld the law, and our Militia Records, 1757–1860, remember those who defended the community

Also new are Vagrant Passes, 1739-1791 which contain documents related to people accused of vagrancy and the Alehouse Licence Records, 1754-1821 detailing publicans in the Dorset area.

If you make any new discoveries in these records, let us know on our Facebook Wall.

If you have family from Warwickshire, England you may well find them in one of 300,000 new Warwickshire records we added this week.

Some records in these collections pre date 1837, making them particularly useful in finding people before civil registration began. Some records actually date back to 1564 (shown in the image above).

One interesting new collection is the Warwickshire, England, Bastardy Orders, 1816-1839 which contain orders issued in bastardy cases by Quarter Session courts. In cases of an illegitimate birth, Poor Unions tried to identify the father and make him legally responsible for the child’s maintenance to keep the child off parish relief rolls. Mothers could also apply to require a father to support his child.

Bastardy orders were an official order of the Quarter Sessions court requiring the putative father of an illegitimate child to provide for the child. They contain the name of the mother and assumed father, but not the name of the child, though they specify the gender and birth date.

The Warwickshire, England, Parish Poor Law, 1546-1904 includes images of a variety of different records created in Warwickshire in connection with the Poor Laws. They can help you identify members of your family who were considered poor, find out what aid they received, and discover details of their everyday lives. It’s sometimes possible to piece together the story of a relative’s life, from their placement at a school as a child, through their time in a workhouse, up to their final fate—be it their eventual passing or an escape from poverty.

Or, you may find your ancestor on the other side of the coin, among the rate payers. Poor Law records can also be useful in tracing movements among family members—both poor and not. These records can be browsed by parish or other jurisdiction and record type.

We also added the following new collections -

• Warwick, England, Burial Slips from Warwick Cemetery, 1859-1968 (14,942 records, 22,649 images)
• Warwickshire, England, Land Tax, 1773-1830 (248,653 records, 11,153 images) 
• Warwickshire, England, Militia, 1776-1825 (1,055 records, 1219 images) 
• Warwickshire, England, Occupational and Quarter Session Records (7139 images)

Let us know on our Facebook wall or via Twitter if you make any new discoveries!

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 records also including occupation, to whom a convict was assigned, nativity and detailed physical description.

As early Australian convicts and free settlers established themselves in their new country, almost all aspects of their lives and activities fell under the responsibility of the Governor and were recorded by the colonial secretaries. The NSW Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856, are the most comprehensive collection of public records relating to the early years of Australia, following the arrival of the First Fleet.

These records paint a vivid picture of day-to-day life in early Australia as they contain all the letters and records associated with the daily activities of colonial administration in NSW. This includes letters and complaints received, marriage permission requests, character memorials for potential settlers, petitions by convicts for sentence mitigation, pardons, official visit reports, grant or lease applications, information about court cases, import and transportation permits, proclamations, office appointments, affidavits notifying loss of certificates of freedom and tickets of leave.

While most early Australians can be found in these collections, some of the most notable public figures and convict heroes include:

• William Bligh, 4X great grandfather of Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, was the captain of the HMS Bounty, whose crew mutinied against him, and former governor of NSW, who was deposed from that role when the citizens of NSW rebelled against him.
• William Bland, the original Australian larrikin who mocked authority and was convicted of murder and transported to Van Diemen’s Land, then Sydney. A classic case of convict “makes good”, Bland became a member of the Legislative Council but declared bankruptcy the year he resigned.
• Mary Bryant (nee Broad) arrived in Australia as a prisoner with the First Fleet aboard the The Charlotte. During her journey, she gave birth to a baby girl whom she named after the ship. Upon arrival, she married William Bryant, a convicted smuggler who had arrived on the same ship. In a demonstration of the resolve and determination of early Australians, Mary, her husband and a seven-man crew stole one of the governor’s boats and escaped from Botany Bay but were eventually discovered and the boat was shot down on the coast of Timor.
• James Ruse was a Cornish farmer who at the age of 23 was convicted of breaking and entering and was sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia.  He arrived on the First Fleet. When he had 18 months remaining in his sentence, he applied to Governor Philip for a land grant, stating his farming background. Governor Phillip, desperate to make the colony self-sufficient, allocated Ruse an allotment at Rose Hill.  After Ruses’ sentence expired, his land was deeded to him and Ruse became the first person in the colony to receive a land grant.

 Australia Day is an occasion to not only celebrate our great country, but a day to reflect on who we are, where we came from and how our early history shaped our country’s character, attitude and culture.

These new records are a significant addition to our collection, which now surpasses the one billion record mark on the site. They provide one of the most detailed snap shots of the day-to-day life of early Australia and those who founded our country.

These convict records are free to search from 26 January – 29 January 2012. Simply go to www.ancestry.com.au/convict2012 to begin searching.

[i] The Australian Constitution Referendum Study, 1999 

Our NEW London, England, Electoral Registers, 1835-1965, take you back through the history of Britain and London’s democratic system. More than that, they let you trace your English ancestors’ movements between census years and well into the 20th century, giving you far greater precision in your timeline of their lives.

Electoral registers listed everybody in a particular area who had the right to vote. They were started in 1832 and taken just about every year from then on.

At first, they only included middle-class men, as these were the only people who could vote. However, as more and more people were allowed to take part in elections they gradually became comprehensive lists of local adults and by 1928 everyone over the age of 21 was registered.

Electoral registers reveal each person’s name and address. In early records, you might also find details of how they met the voting criteria, such as the size of their property, whether they owned or rented it, and even their occupation.

Because these records were compiled annually they enable you pinpoint any changes to a precise year. For example, you might know that one ancestor moved house between 1871 and 1881. That’s quite a long period of time in comparaison to these days when we might move three or four times in a decade – perhaps more! By following that person through the registers, you can see exactly when their address changed.

The first and last years when a relative appears in the registers are also crucial. Before 1969 each person was added when they reached 21 meaning that you can effectively work out their birth year.  And they were usually listed right up to their death, so a sudden disappearance might suggest they emigrated or passed away that year.

Our new addition, the London Electoral Registers, 1835–1965, is a particularly extensive collection, including more than 139 million records from all over London. Just click here to start searching the records.

We have just completed the second part of our 1911 England and Wales Census  transcriptions with records covering London, Lancashire, Yorkshire and 17 other counties now fully searchable.

Last month we released searchable records for Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. With this latest addition, we have concentrated on England’s busiest areas to help you find your family.

Not surprisingly, the most populated region at the time was the City of London. You may find an ancestor living among the 4.5 million people that called the capital home in 1911.

Yorkshire, Lancashire, Warwickshire and other areas across the country were also thriving in the early 20th century.  The Industrial Revolution was complete by this time, and people were flocking to England’s towns and cities to take advantage of new opportunities for work.

Here’s a full list of the areas that are now searchable:

• Channel Islands
• Cheshire
• Cornwall
• Cumberland
• Derbyshire
• Devon
• Durham
• Isle of Man
• Lancashire
• Leicestershire
• Lincolnshire
• London
• Norfolk
• Northumberland
• Nottinghamshire
• Royal Navy
• Rutland
• Wales
• Warwickshire
• Westmorland
• Worcestershire
• Yorkshire – East Riding
• Yorkshire – North Riding
• Yorkshire – West Riding

Unlike other censuses from England, the 1911 census provides you with the actual forms your ancestors filled in, complete with their handwriting and signatures.

We are continuing to work on the remaining transcriptions – these will be finished next year.

Search the Census now.

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 Surgeon Superintendents’ Journals of Convict Ships, 1858-1867 include over 43,000 records depicting vivid and often gruesome details of ‘contemporary’ treatments and medical practices, as well as stories of life aboard convict ships, from the perils and prevalence of grog-related accidents to a simple chronicle of the daily routine on a 19^th century sailing vessel.

If you are one of the 20% of Aussies (i) claiming convict history, you may well have an ancestor included in these collections. Individual records list the names and ages of passengers, convicts and crew who were sick or may have come to the surgeons’ attention.

Life Onboard a Convict Ship

Interesting stories that can be found in the collections include:

• The Woodman was a female only convict ship whose passenger list included an unmarried prisoner named Eliza Barry, who was transported to Sydney in 1823. Her name appeared in the medical records (shown below) numerous times, with an initial entry noting she “had suffered much from seasickness after eating heartily of salt beef for dinner, imprudently drank a large draught of vinegar and cold water and was seized with violent torturing colic pain in her stomach.” It is unknown whether she knew she was pregnant at the time, however while on board she gave birth to a boy who the surgeon recorded was the largest he had ever seen.

• Effective punishments – An entry by James Hamilton, Surgeon Superintendent on board the convict ship Adamant found that “stopping their wine is a capital plan to make them pay attention to cleanliness and has more effect than putting them in irons, patients all better.”
• A treatment for a tarantula bite or scorpion sting includes pouring rum on the afflicted area.
• One surgeon hails the benefits of tobacco smoke on a man who had fallen overboard and nearly drowned. The man is admitted to hospital with pneumonia in a later journal.

These journals detail daily life on board these ships and paint a riveting picture of what the journey to Australia must have been like for convicts. These often gruesome accounts are a must read for anyone with a convict connection.

The records are also valuable for those family history researchers who may have reached a dead end as they may include the missing link to passengers who did not recover and never made it to their destination.

You can search these and more Australian convict records online at Ancestry.com.au. Let us know if you make any exciting discoveries!

(i) The Australian Constitution Referendum Study, 1999

You’ll find new Irish Catholic parish records from the 18th and 19th centuries including Catholic Parish Baptisms, 1742-1881, Catholic Parish Marriages and Banns, 1742-1884 and Catholic Parish Deaths, 1756-1881.

Even though the official state church was the Church of Ireland, the vast majority of Ireland’s population was Catholic, so these records should help in finding early births, marriages and deaths.

These records are significant because some of them pre-date civil registration which began in 1864 (except for non-Catholic marriages which began in 1845). Since Irish emigration peaked during the famine (1845-1852) and post-famine years prior to when most civil registration began, these records are an important resource for many Irish-Catholic ancestors who left during that period.

We’ve also released indexes to Ireland’s civil births (over 9 million records), marriages (more than 4.5 million) and deaths (6.6 million) from 1864 to 1958. Included in the Births index is James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, shown below.

If you can’t find your ancestors in our new Catholic or civil registers, there’s a good chance you’ll spot them in Ireland, Births and Baptisms, 1620–1881 – a collection of more than 5 million births taken from church, civil, family and other records.

As you may know, many of the Irish census records were destroyed which makes Irish family history difficult.  These  indexes cover the same period, so they may help to fill in the frustrating gaps in your family tree.

Start searching our Irish records today. Let us know if you make any interesting discoveries!

Three months ago, Ancestry and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum launched the World Memory Project. Since that time almost 2000 community contributors have indexed over 395,000 records across 15 different record collections. These records contain information about victims and survivors of the Holocaust and Nazi-era persecution.

We are proud to announce that this generous community completed indexing of the first of these collections in just 20 days.

USHMM: Munich, Germany, Displaced Jewish Children at the Ulm Children’s Home, 1945-1948

Following the surrender of the Nazis during World War II the Central Historical Commission of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the U.S. Zone, Munich (CHC) collected information about some of the child Holocaust survivors in the Displaced Persons camps. This particular database is an extracted index of CHC questionnaires created when Jewish children were brought to the Children’s Home in Ulm, Germany. The children range in age from four to nineteen and were asked about their lives during the Nazi rule, the fate of their families, their journey to Ulm postwar, and their desired immigration location.

There were only about 325 questionnaires indexed as part of this collection. But, as you can see, we captured each person listed, creating an index with information about more than 2700 individual family members.

Last week that index was published on Ancestry.com.au making these records freely available for anyone to search. Images of the original questionnaires, some with photos, can be obtained directly from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum using these ordering instructions.

We invite you to join us and participate in the World Memory Project where you can help make these victims’ records freely searchable online and restore the identities of people the Nazis tried to erase from history. Even a few minutes of your time can create a chance for family connections that transcend war and time.

The new collection documents the names and journeys of more than 14.5 million people who travelled to Australia between 1788 and 1923 in search of a new life.

With almost a third (29%) of Australiansⁱnot knowing the details of their ancestors’ arrival in Australia, these new records will help millions of Aussies in uncovering information about how and when their family came to land on these shores.

These records include a wealth of information which can help you build or grow your family tree, including

• Name
• Age
• Occupation
• Ship Name
• Date and port of arrival and departure

Many early immigrants and their descendants went on to achieve fame and notoriety in Australia. Notable examples found in these records include –

• Heath Ledger’s great -grandfather Edson Ledger arrived in Fremantle with his family around 1881 aboard the Fitzroy. Edson and his brother Joseph went on to create a successful engineering company, manufacturing many of the pipes used in the 550km long Goldfields Pipeline.
  
   
• Nicole Kidman is descended from assisted Irish settlers Bridget and James Callachar, who arrived in Sydney in 1842 (on board the Agnes Ewing). Listed as agricultural labourers, they settled in Port Macquarie where they had a son, Nicole’s great great-grandfather. Thousands of Irish refugees arrived on Australian soil during the 1840s, many coming over in ‘coffin ships’, fleeing the Irish potato famine.
  
   
• Donald Bradman’s grandfather, Charles Bradman, was an assisted immigrant who arrived in April 1855 on the Rose of Sharon. The records show that he was a labourer from Withersfield in Suffolk. Donald went on to become one of Australia’s most popular sporting heroes, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time with a career average of 99.94!
  

Although Australia has strong convict roots, many early European settlers made their way here of their own free will to join convict relatives, to own land for the first time, find gold or simply escape life back home.

To discover where your ancestors came from and start to uncover their personal stories, visit www.ancestry.com.au/immigration.

ⁱ The Australians’ attitudes towards family history survey was commissioned by Ancestry.com.au and was conducted by The Online Research Unit (ORU) who polled a nationally representative sample of a 1000 people across Australia aged 18 and over, October 2010.