English Convict Prisons and Criminal Lunatic Asylums records added to TheGenealogist

From TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk):

Press Release: New Records Release

Prisoner Records reveal a criminal lunatic who threatened Queen Victoria and was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure

TheGenealogist is adding to its Court and Criminal Records collection with the release of almost 700,000 entries for prisoners. Sourced from the HO 8 Registers held by The National Archives, these documents contain records from the years 1821 to 1876. This expands our collection to over 1.3 million individuals covering 1801-1876.

These Prison Registers give family history researchers details of ancestors who were imprisoned in a number of convict prisons from Broadmoor to the Warrior Convict Hulk. The records reveal the names of prisoners, offences the prisoner had been convicted for, the date of their trial and where they were tried.

Use the quarterly prison registers to:

● Find ancestors guilty of crimes ranging from theft, highway robbery and libel to murder
● Discover the sentences received
● See the age of a prisoner
● Find out where they were sentenced and to which prison they were sent

Read our article, “A child poisoner and a criminal lunatic detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure”.
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/ho-8-historic-prisoner-records-reveal-a-child-poisoner-and-a-criminal-lunatic-detained-at-her-majestys-pleasure-1049/

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

UPDATE: Thanks to Nick for a clarification that although the records are for English Convict Prisons they "do contain some convicts that were convicted in Scotland and sent to an English prison as well. Here is an example of a John Smith convicted of Assault in Glasgow 1874 and in the registers of the Convict Prison in Portsmouth. https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/search/master/?type=person&source=&search_type=person&master_event=Court+%26+Criminal&person_event=&fn=John&phonetic_mode_fn=1&sn=Smith&phonetic_mode_sn=1&kw=HO+8&yr=&range=2&search=Search&page=5#loadwindow_-1085498429.  I was fascinated to find some convicts from Jersey (again a separate legal jurisdiction) serving time in these institutions!"

Chris

My next Scottish Research Online course starts March 11th 2019 - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Details of my genealogical research service are available at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. For my Scottish and Irish themed books, visit https://britishgenes.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Irish convict records talk at National Archives of Ireland

From the National Archives of Ireland (www.nationalarchives.ie) in Dublin:

Our evening lecture series for 2019 will begin with ‘Banished Beyond the Seas: NAI records of convict transportation to Australia, 1788-1868’, a talk to be given by Joan Kavanagh in our Reading Room on Thursday 31 January at 6pm.

All lectures are free, no booking is required and all are welcome to attend!

Chris

My next Scottish Research Online course starts March 11th 2019 - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Details of my genealogical research service are available at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. For my Scottish and Irish themed books, visit https://britishgenes.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Fife Kalendar of Convicts 1790–1880 CD now on sale

Fife Family History Society (www.fifefhs.org) has released a new data CD, entitled Fife Kalendar of Convicts, 1790–1880. The following are the details, and where to buy:

Fife Kalendar of Convicts, 1790 – 1880 (CD)

£15.00

This CD contains a PDF copy of the Fife Kalendar of Convicts, 1790 – 1880 (20MB) and an installer for Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Kalendar is also available as a digital download. At over 2000 pages long this publication is not suitable for printing. It is best viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader, an application widely available as a free download.

The Fife Kalendar of Convicts is an index of cases tried in a number of the courts of Fife, as well as Fife cases before the High Court. It also covers Jury Trials of Cupar and Dunfermline Sheriff Courts, as well as Justice of the Peace records and cases dealt with at local Burgh/Police/Magistrates Courts. Records of transportation of Fife convicts to Australia have also been consulted, as have additional sources.

To purchase the CD, and for further details, please visit https://shop.fifefhs.org/shop/cd-media/fife-kalendar-of-convicts-1790-1880-cd/

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

NSW Colonial Secretary's Letters 1826-1856 join Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added a new Australian collection, indexed as part of its World Archives Project:

New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Letters, 1826-1856
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61481
Source: State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia.

The collection New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Letters, 1826-1856 consist mainly of copies of letters to the Principle Superintendent of Convicts and to the Land Board in relation to the assignment of convict servants. Letters and records of various events make up the majority of the collections: petitions by convicts for sentence mitigation, marriage permission requests, character memorials for potential settlers, land grant or lease applications, official visit reports, information about court cases, and lists of assigned servants. These files were organized by the Colonial Secretary, or Secretary to the Governor of New South Wales.

The colony of New South Wales is located on the south-east coast of Australia and became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. Prior to that date it was a British colony whose first settlement was a penal colony governed by Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788. During the time period of this collection, 1788 through 1856, 10 different governors were assigned to the colony, which existed in a steady state of anarchy until the appointment of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who cracked down on active rebellion leaders and built local infrastructure in the form of roads, wharves, churches, and public buildings. Mentioned in this collection is Governor William Bligh. An officer of the British Royal Navy, he had the reputation of a firm disciplinarian and was appointed the fourth governor of New South Wales in 1805 with the assignment to straighten out the colony and clean up the corrupt rum trade. He was deposed in 1808 by a group of settlers in what is known as the Rum Rebellion, and held captive until 1810.

Within these records you can find significant information about your ancestors if they lived or immigrated to New South Wales during this time period. If they requested to marry, resettle in New South Wales, or acquire a land grant these requests would have been processed by the colonial secretary or other administrative personnel. For more general information about Australian records and research see Searching for Roots Down Under by Janet Reakes in the Learning Center. This article provides a short history of the settlement of Australia, suggests other databases on the Ancestry.com site to search, and includes a brief summary of the kinds of records you can look for in order to further your research.

Information in this database:

Given name
Surname
Event date
Event description

This collection is only partially indexed but all of the images may be viewed using the browse.

Chris

My next 5 week long Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course commences Nov 6th 2017 - details at https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

Digital Panopticon: London convicts database project

News of a new British convicts database at https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/:

NEW, FREE HISTORY WEBSITE TRACES LIVES OF TRANSPORTED AND IMPRISONED BRITISH CONVICTS

Family historians, teachers, crime writers and academics can follow the lives of people convicted and transported to Australia or imprisoned in Britain using a vast, new, free online resource.

The Digital Panopticon website draws on over four million records to allow users to uncover how punishment affected the lives of 90,000 individuals convicted of crimes at the Old Bailey between 1780 and 1925, including those uprooted by the UK criminal justice system to carry out their sentence in the British Empire’s then newly established penal colonies in Australia.

By providing a wide range of search fields, including name, year and place of birth, criminal record, height, eye and hair colour, among others, it is possible to compare the impact of transportation and imprisonment on reoffending, desistence, family lives and health.

The free website also allows users to search by group, such as those convicted of a certain crime, and then download entire data sets for analysis.

Researchers have discovered that:

• Many convicts did not serve the punishments as originally laid out, including many sentenced to transportation that never left Britain
• British convicts that were transported to Australia tended to desist from offending once married with children.
• Children born to transported convicts were healthier and taller than those born to convicts imprisoned in Britain.
• A dramatic increase in record-keeping during the 19th century became a new form of state control over the criminal.

Project lead, Professor Barry Godfrey, a social historian at the University of Liverpool, said: “The amount of information is staggeringly huge, it’s a resource the likes of which we have never had before.

“It is one of the largest genealogical resources and one of the first to catalogue in chronological order so users can follow the whole life of a person.”

Professor Bob Shoemaker, at the University of Sheffield, said: “Combining extraordinarily rich records with the latest digital humanities methodologies, this free resource demonstrates the impact of punishment on health, family circumstances and future patterns of offending, with clear relevance to contemporary penal regimes.”

Tim Hitchcock, Professor of Digital History at the University of Sussex, said: “The Digital Panopticon helps us understand history from below in a new way – from the perspective of the hundreds of thousands of working people caught up in a global system of policing, punishment and empire.

“The material reveals the lived experience of trial and imprisonment. It really does change our understanding of the history of criminal justice, particularly the importance of both the criminal trial and plea bargaining to the system’s evolution.”

Professor Deborah Oxley, at the University of Oxford, said: “Social and economic history has entered a new era.

“Mass biography, connecting multifarious records across individual lives, offers new opportunities for understanding the past. Gaze afresh at the birth of the modern criminal justice system, as it journeyed from death and transportation to detention, from inside this Digital Panopticon.”

Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stuart, at the University of Tasmania, said: “The Digital Panopticon site will provide access to many records hitherto unavailable to Australian based researchers.

“It will prove a particularly important resource for family historians, enabling them to track the lives of the men and women sentenced in the Old Bailey to ‘leave their country for their country’s good’.”

The website forms part of the wider Digital Panopticon project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and has been developed by the University of Liverpool, University of Sheffield, University of Oxford, University of Sussex and University of Tasmania in Australia. The technical work, including data assembly, record linkage, and website creation was carried out by the Digital Humanities Institute at the University of Sheffield.

The new resource also includes data from genealogy sites Find My Past and Ancestry, as well as the National Archives and record collections in Australia. Users of the Digital Panopticon are able to see if additional materials related to their research are available in these external sources.

The website is online at https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/
Convict life stories can be read here: https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Convict_Lives

(With thanks to Matt Hurst at the University of Liverpool)

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course commences Sept 11th 2017 - details at www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

Review - Arrivals in Australia from 1788, by Kerry Farmer

It's been three months since the Unlock the Past (www.unlockthepast.com.au) run genealogy cruise that I worked on as a speaker (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/unlock-past-baltic-genealogy-cruise_94.html), and one thing I have utterly failed in so far since my return is to upload some reviews of some of the Unlock the Past guide books that fellow genies have written and published through the company. I picked up a few, and so I really should review them before anyone starts thinking of second editions! Without further ado then, here comes the first...

Arrivals in Australia from 1788, by Kerry Farmer
Australia - AU$32.00 Inc GST www.gould.com.au/Arrivals-in-Australia-from-1788-p/utp0292.htm
Canada - Can$32 http://globalgenealogy.com/countries/other-countries/resources/2590292.htm
UK - £16 www.my-history.co.uk/acatalog/Arrivals-in-Australia-from-1788-UTP0292.html#SID=876

I attended some of Kerry's talks on a previous cruise last year, and she is definitely amongst my fave top ten genies as speakers - the impression I got was that what she doesn't know about the subjects she covers just isn't worth knowing! In this chunky guide book Kerry starts in the first chapter by providing a comprehensive introduction to depict the methods by which folk migrated to Australia - convicts are just a mere part of the story, with assisted passage an equally popular method of travel, not to mention those travelling for work, not least the military. She also discusses records of naturalisation, passports (compulsory from 1920 for all Ozzies to travel), and other resources, including records of births at sea en route down under. The next three chapters then focus specifically on the tales of convicts, ships' crew members and those in military service, before chapters 5 to 11 look at the individual colonies, and chapter 12 the Commonwealth of Australia. These chapters follow a similar structure, with discussion on immigration history, ships list, websites for research, and more.

A glossary is then followed by four appendices, two of which are particular fun, namely an Immigrants Guide transcribed from 1853 (first published in a Liverpool newspaper), detailing the clothes that immigrants should pack, and a copy of the Passengers Act of 1855, detailing how folk should be detailed aboard ship when sailing to their new lives. The remaining appendices provide a list of useful books and websites for research.

Kerry's book is fair size for a UTP guide book at 140 pages long, and is a wonderfully useful go to illustrated guide, one that I know will be of immense use in years to come. It has some nice touches, such as a graphic on page 15 depicting when each of the Australian colonies was founded - that's probably wee buns on the knowledge stakes to those based down under, but a Godsend for johnny foreigners like me still trying to work out which bit of Australia goes where and when! Thoroughly recommended.

Prices quoted and links above are to the print editions of the book available from suppliers in Australia, Canada and here in the UK. Ebook editions are also available via Gen-eBooks at www.gen-ebooks.com.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Tasmania, Victoria and New Zealand records added to Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added four new sets of records for those with Australian and Kiwi based family:

Victoria, Australia, Lunatic Estates and Register, 1867-1906
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60712

New Zealand, School Registers and Lists, 1850-1967
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=6193

Tasmania, Australia, Baptisms of Children of Convicted Women, 1833-1854
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60750

Tasmania, Australia, Convict Court and Selected Records, 1800-1899
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60920

The Tasmanian sets have been sourced from Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office in Hobart, and the Victoria collection from the Public Record Office Victoria, North Melbourne, but the New Zealand collection does not have any source given, save to say that the records have been keyed as part of the World Archives Project.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Irish Army 1922 census and Australian convict records added to FindmyPast

From FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk):

Irish Army Census 1922
Containing over 32,000 records, the Irish Army Census 1922 is comprised of ten volumes held by the Military Archives of Ireland. The census lists the names of all those serving with the army at midnight on 12/13 November 1922 and was imposed to help with administrative challenges faced by the new Army Pay Office. The National Army was established in 1922 following the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty and the end of the Irish War of Independence. The first recruits were pro-Treaty supporters within the Irish Republican Army though records show that a number of later recruits were as young as 14 years old. The census will be an invaluable resource as it was taken shortly after the Four Courts fire had destroyed thousands of records. The census is also of historical significance as it was taken during the Irish Civil War (1922-1924). Each record includes a transcript of the details found in the original records and a link to the image on the Military Archives website. Each transcript includes a soldiers name, age, birth year, place and county. Images will reveal further details such as their division, rank, attestation details, home address and next of kin.

Australian Criminal Records
Containing over 2,000 records, the Victoria, Convict register 1842-1854 is made up of several lists relating to the administration of convicts in the Port Phillip District. The region was administered by the colony of New South Wales until, on 1 July 1851, it separated to become the Colony of Victoria. Although no convicts were transported directly to Port Phillip, many ended up in the region as servants or workers assigned to government projects. Others entered from New South Wales or Tasmania as ticket-of-leave holders seeking work. Each record includes an image of the original document and a transcript. The amount of information listed may vary but most will include the convicts name, year of transportation, the ship they arrived on, details of their sentence and details of either their assignment or ticket of leave.

The New South Wales, Convict Death Register 1828-1879 contains the details of nearly 7,000 convict deaths as reported to the Principal Superintendent of Convicts (until 1855), and subsequently the Inspector General of Police. Each record contains a transcript and black and white image of the original document. Records list the deceased Convicts name, age, date of burial, place of burial, the ship they arrived on and any additional remarks.

The Queensland Convict register index 1824-1839 contains the details of over 2,600 convicts held at the Moreton Bay convict settlement. Moreton Bay was established in 1823 as a place of secondary punishment for convicted prisoners who committed further crimes in the Port Jackson region. Around 2,400 men and 145 women lived in the Bay’s convict depots under the control of military commandants who were required to maintain registers for regular submission to the Colonial Secretary in Sydney. Each record is a transcript of the original source documents. Transcripts can include details of the prisoner’s offence and sentence, their prisoner number and physical description as well as biographical details such as their place of birth, year of birth and religion.

Containing over 10,000 records, the Queensland, St Helena Convict Index 1863-1936 lists the details of convicts held at the penal colony on the Island of St Helena. St Helena is located 2.5 miles east of the mouth of the Brisbane River in Moreton Bay and was named after an after an aboriginal named Napoleon was exiled there in 1826. It later became home to a quarantine station that became one of the most profitable prisons in the State’s history, housing prisoners under sentence of hard labour. Conditions were so harsh that it became known as “the hell hole of the Pacific” or “Queensland’s Inferno”. Each record is a transcript taken from original source documents. Transcripts can include the prisoner’s name, their prisoner number, the year their name was taken as well as page, ID and reference numbers for the original documents held by the Queensland State Archives.

Australia Convict Tickets of Leave 1824-1874 contains over 60,000 records. A ticket of Leave was a form of bail or licence that allowed prisoners to build a new life in Australia before the official end of their sentence. The system was introduced informally in 1801 to reward convicts who had performed a service or been of particularly good conduct and allowed them to work for themselves, marry, or to have their families join them. Tickets had to be renewed yearly and carried at all times. Ticket holders were also expected to regularly attend religious services, prohibited from leaving the colony and barred from carrying firearms. The records in this collection consist of three different types of document held by the Government of New South Wales: Registers of tickets of leave 1824-1833, Ticket of leave butts 1827-1875, and New South Wales, butts of convicts’ certificates of freedom 1827-1867. Each record contains a transcript and black and white image of the original document that can include the prisoners name, where they were born (convicts came from all over the British Empire), their offence, occupation, a physical description and where they were allowed to settle.

New South Wales, butts of convicts’ certificates of freedom 1827-1867 contain nearly 32,000 records. Certificates of Freedom were awarded to convicts after they completed a fixed term of sentence, allowing them to go free and choose whether to settle in Australia or return home to their country of their origin. Certificates were only available to prisoners serving a fixed term sentence, usually 4, 7 or 14 years, and not to those serving life sentences. Each record contains a transcript and a black and white image of the original document. Earlier certificates show the bare details of name, sentence and ship while later certificates give much greater detail including occupation or calling, native place and distinguishing physical marks. They may also note whether or not the convict previously held a ticket of leave, which would allow him limited freedom before the end of his sentence.

British Army, List of Half-pay Officers 1714
The British Army, List of Half-pay Officers 1714 contains the details of over 3,000 Officers from over 116 different regiments within the British Army. Half-pay referred to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service. Many of those listed would have served in the War of Spanish Succession (1701 to 1714). The Treaty of Utrecht, signed at the end of the War, reduced the size of the British Army by almost 50 regiments. This left a high number of officers displaced. Retirement for an officer was not available until 1871 so many went on half-pay, allowing them to retain their commissions and remain available for any future service. The index was created by Wienand Drenth. Each record includes a transcript of the original source material that lists the Officers name, rank, regiment and establishment (English or Irish).

(With thanks to Alex Cox)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Sligo and Clare workhouse records and Australian convict records now on FindmyPast

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has released two new workhouse records collections for Ireland. These are as follows:

Containing of over 9,000 records, the Sligo workhouse registers 1848-1859 consist of handwritten registers taken at the Sligo Union workhouse, one of three workhouses in the County Sligo. The records pre-date civil registration and will be a valuable resource to those with Sligo ancestors given the lack of 19th century census material available in Ireland. Each record includes a transcript and an image of the original document. The registers list the names of new arrivals and details including their age, occupation, religion, any illnesses or infirmities, family members, local parish, their condition on arrival (usually describing clothes or cleanliness) and when they were discharged or died.

Containing over 63,000 records, the Clare Poor Law Unions Board of Guardians Minute Books cover the Kilrush and Ennistymon unions, two of eight poor law unions located in County Clare. The Board of Guardians oversaw the running of the poor law unions as well as the hiring of teachers, staff and contractors. Guardians were elected by those who paid the taxes that funded poor law relief. The books recorded weekly reports on the number of inmates, new arrivals, births, deaths and discharges. They also recorded expenditures including food supplies and salaries as well as the number of inmates receiving medical treatments. Each record contains a transcript and an image of the original handwritten minutes.

Also released are some Australian convicts collections, and some English parish records:

• Nearly 27,000 Australia Convict Conditional and Absolute Pardons 1791-1867.
• New South Wales Registers of Convicts’ Applications to Marry 1825-1851 contains over 26,000 records.
• Over 188,000 Australia Convict ships 1786-1849 records
• Over 7,000 records from Victoria Prison Registers 1855-1948, for prisoners who passed through Pentridge prison, Coburg, Victoria.
• Over 4,000 parish records for Southfleet, Kent.

Full details at http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/fridays/

(With thanks to Alex Cox)

Chris

The latest British GENES podcast is available at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/podcasts.html. For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Women's WW1 military collections and Queensland records on FindmyPast

Amongst the latest updates to FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) are images for the Civil Service Evidence of Age collection, which has been available in index format for some time, as well as the following military collections (with National Archives references for the collections from which they have been sourced):

• Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Service Records 1917-1920 (WO 398)
• British Women’s Royal Naval Service officer files 1917-1919 (ADM 318)
• British Women’s Royal Naval Service Ratings’ Service Registers 1918-1919 (ADM 336)
• British Women’s Royal Air Force Service Records 1918-1920 (AIR 80)

Also available for Australia are:

• Queensland Assisted Immigration 1848-1912
• Queensland Immigration registers 1922-1940
• Queensland Passport registers 1926-1939

Full details are available at http://blog.findmypast.com/2015/new-findmypast-friday-records-6

Chris

For details on my range of genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

New Dorset records on Ancestry

I mentioned a few days ago that some of the following were imminent - I just didn't realise they were that imminent! Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has made available the following collections, as indexed through the World Archives Project:

• Dorset, England, Land Tax Returns, 1780-1832
• Dorset, England, Dorchester Prison Admission and Discharge Registers, 1782-1901
• Dorset, England, Convict Transportation Records, 1724-1791
• Dorset, England, Calendars of Prisoners, 1854-1904
• Dorset, England, Vagrant Passes, 1739-1791
• Dorset, England, Jury Lists, 1825-1921
• Dorset, England, Alehouse Licence Records, 1754-1821

For more information on the releases read the company's blog post at http://blogs.ancestry.com/uk/2012/06/14/new-dorset-records-are-you-descended-from-pirates/

(And thanks to Ancestry for reinstating the New Records link on the home page!)

Chris

Check out my Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)

Middlesex transportation records

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added a new database, Middlesex, England, Convict Transportation Contracts, 1682-1787, with some 4299 records of those transported predominantly to the American colonies, and the Caribbean.

The coverage is for transportations from 1682, 1715, 1720-1733, 1753-1756, 1762, 1767-1776, 1783 and 1787, with the source information stating that they have been obtained from Middlesex Quarter Sessions Court held at London Metropolitan Archives. Information available includes:

• Convict Name
• Ship Name
• Captain Name
• Destination
• Transfer Dates

To access the collection visit http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=2381

(With thanks to @ancestryUK)

Chris

British GENES on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES and Twitter @chrismpaton

Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk and www.facebook.com/ScottishGenealogyResearch

Fife Kalendar of Convicts appeal

Fife Family History Society (http://fifefamilyhistorysociety.blogspot.co.uk) is planning to bring out a CD in 2013 entitled The Fife Kalendar of Convicts, a collection of court based material on convicts sourced from the NRS, St Andrews University Library and Fife Council Archives, as well as local newspapers. They are particularly keen to hear from people with Fife convict transportees in their trees - for more details visit their blog post at http://fifefamilyhistorysociety.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/fife-kalendar-of-convicts-1800-1900.html.

Chris

British GENES on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES and Twitter @chrismpaton

Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk and www.facebook.com/ScottishGenealogyResearch