Yesterday I went to a talk by Janette Pelosi from the State Records of NSW about the recent addition to their web site, a collection of
early convict records called Sentenced Beyond
the Seas. It covers records of
convicts who came to NSW up to 1801 and was a gift to the people of Australia to
commemorate the 225th anniversary in 2013 of the arrival of the First Fleet at
Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.
This is more than just the convict indents. This collection also includes Orders in Council,
Special bundles of the Colonial Secretary, lists of books sent to the Principal
Superintendent of Convicts and other treasures.
The records that are included have been digitised, not scanned, except for Order in Council No. 11, relating to convicts on the Surprize (1), Neptune and Scarborough (2), which were missing from the State Records and were therefore sourced from the AJCP microfilms. Being in colour makes it much easier to see later pencil annotations on the indents.
Sadly for those will ancestors who came on the Lady Juliana,
Sentenced Beyond the Seas only includes
one document about that ship, which contains the names of only three of the 250
convicts who came on that ship. This is
because State Records do not have any copies of any other records relating to
this voyage.
The collection also includes a previously unknown letter dated
1822 containing a list of Convicts sent out from Ireland in 1800 in the Ship Anne (Stewart Master) "whose
periods of Transportation have never been sent out ‘till now, and who are to be
allowed to go Home, in Case their Sentences have expired."
The collection can be searched by name (including alias),
place of trial, county of trial, sentence, ship, ship page or remarks from
here.
This collection adds to the information on convicts that
they already had on their web site, which includes details of later convicts,
convict pardons, tickets of leave, convict bank accounts and much more.
State Records are to be thanked and congratulated for making
this invaluable resource available online.
