Convict Connections

For a simple alphabetical list of convicts of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Fleets showing their sentences; also a list of Irish Convicts to NSW 1788 – 1849 see Patricia Downes' Australian Pioneers

 

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.

 

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!

 

Convict Transportation Register Database

Use the Find a Convict Search Box. It doesn't only contain Queensland data. It found my Western Australian convicts too.

 

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!

 

I tried this link and it took me to a foreign site, it looked Spanish or similar, is this right?

 

The link is wrong. I've found the correct website:

Claim A Convict

 

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?

 

Trying to update the link to the Fremantle Prison Convict Database - the former link was going nowhere too. I wish they'd stop changing urls on these websites!

Fremantle Prison Convict Database

 

Updated link for Convicts To Australia aka Convict Central

Convicts to Australia aka Convict Central

 

Updated link to Linc Tasmania - the former website link no longer works

Linc Tasmania

 

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

 

Yes it was his term of imprisonment, he had been convicted of stealing before .

 

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.