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Convict Connections

Alexander Bisset

Alexander Bisset

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I found one of my 4g grandfathers who was transported to Australia in 1842 in the records at Linc Tasmania this is a truly amazing site as it not only gave information but it had the original convict record books scanned and available free of charge. Through this I was able to view an extremely detailed physical description of my 4g grandfather along with the history of his 10 year imprisonment for stealing a shoulder of veal.

I would thoroughly recommend that anyone with ancestors shipped off to Australia check out this resource. NB. the page linked above has links to other convict records for the rest of Australia too.
 
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An excellent FAQ section on the Claim a Convict site which gives heaps of information on how to research convicts. There is also a section where you can “claim a convict” to enable you to connect with others researching the same person. Easy to use and I found 2 ancestors through it.
 
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Another very useful starting point for convict research is Convict Central. Lots of links, lists and hints on transported convicts generally, though I think it started off with a Western Australia focus. It looks a bit light-hearted (and why not?) but I've got a lot out of it.

A mailing list search for Aus convicts on Rootsweb Lists brings up a long list of various Australia-interest lists, of which the top half-dozen or so are related to various aspects of convicts and worth exploring. Don't put Aus convicts in quotes or you'll get only one result.
 
Convicts transported from Lancashire after conviction at the Lancaster Assizes can be found here. I don't know whether this overlaps with other sites but I came across it when searching for something different altogether!
 
Agree that the Convict Central site is extremely good. Sometimes a bit difficult to find info on there but once you get used to how the site operates its family history gold.

Another useful resource is the Fremantle Prison Convict Database

Look carefully before you discount that your convict is there because the surnames don't always come up very alphabetically!
 
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Maid of Kent said:
An excellent FAQ section on the Claim a Convict site which gives heaps of information on how to research convicts. There is also a section where you can “claim a convict” to enable you to connect with others researching the same person. Easy to use and I found 2 ancestors through it.
Click to expand...
I tried this link and it took me to a foreign site, it looked Spanish or similar, is this right?
 
FamilyHistoryGal said:
The link is wrong. I've found the correct website:

Claim A Convict
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link, very useful and allowed me to claim my 3rd Great Uncle George W as a Convict. I have a fair bit of information about him and his later Conditional Pardon and doing well for himself in Victoria but am the first to claim him on the website.

Both he and his brother D were convicted of Larcency in the 1840's , but whilst G was sentenced to transportation, D escaped with a 3 month prison sentence. However the rub was that whilst D was on probation he re-offended so he too was transported. I could not find anything on D who appears to have escaped inclusion on the List.
 
Yes, I claimed my convict, Joshua Kemp too who was transported 1851 to Western Australia aboard the Pyrenees.

The reason the link was wrong was because the originator of the website has died and it looks like someone has taken over the website on a different url. I wonder whether an admin might consider removing the incorrect link?
 
Thankyou folks, I think I have found my husbands 4th Great Uncle Abraham Potter on it, he was born 1816 in Coggeshall, Essex, and I have found several newspaper reports about an Abraham Potter being transported which match the details on the claim a convict site, but how can I be 100% sure it is him ( I am fairly certain it is) but I do not want to claim a man who is not mine.
Any thoughts?
 
Whereabouts in Australia was he transported to? You can search Australian BMD sites to look for deaths and that might give you more of an idea if it is him or not.
 
Just looked at the Abraham Potter on Claim a Convict and it says he was convicted aged 14 in 1841. That would make his birth year about 1827 - however, transcription errors could have been made. I've seen my Joshua Kemp with several birth years but none too far from the real year. I may have read the website wrong - perhaps it was his term of imprisonment rather than his age. I've found he was sentenced to 14 years and he went to Tasmania
 
The Tasmanian Archives Names Index - part of the LINC site mentioned above (searchable for records of Tasmanian convicts)- gives six results when searching for "Abraham Potter" - including a conduct record, marriage record, death record and a record of a trip he took to Melbourne (the other two results belong to his wife, Rebecca Morrell). All the records are digitised, and his transportation date was given as 1842, along with the ship he arrived on, the 'Isabella'.

Hopefully you can find some interesting things there and confirm that this is your relative.
 
FamilyHistoryGal said:
Yes, I claimed my convict, Joshua Kemp too who was transported 1851 to Western Australia aboard the Pyrenees.

The reason the link was wrong was because the originator of the website has died and it looks like someone has taken over the website on a different url. I wonder whether an admin might consider removing the incorrect link?
Click to expand...
Links updated.
 
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