Tasmania Convict Records

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Tasmania

Tasmania Convict Records

Online Resources

Tasmania

• Indexes to Convict Records at State Library of Tasmania - List of convict databases
• 1787-1859 New South Wales and Tasmania: Settlers and Convicts 1787-1859 at Findmypast, Index ($)
• 1800-1893 Tasmania Convict Records 1800-1893 at Findmypast, Index ($)
• 1800-1899 Tasmania, Australia, Convict Court and Selected Records, 1800-1899 at Ancestry, Index ($)
• 1803-1893 Records of the Tasmanian Convict Department 1803-1893 e-book
• 1803-1893 Convicts (1803-1893) at Libraries Tasmania. Convicts transported to Tasmania and those convicted locally through the convict system.
• 1806-1849 New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806-1849 at Ancestry, Index ($)
• 1825-1851 - New South Wales Registers Of Convict Applications To Marry at Findmypast - index & images ($); Also at Ancestry ($)
• 1833-1854 Tasmania, Australia, Baptisms of Children of Convicted Women, 1833-1854 at Ancestry, Index ($)
• 1834-1859 New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia, Convict Pardons and Tickets of Leave, 1834-1859 at Ancestry, Index ($)

New South Wales Online Resources, Including Tasmania Prior to 1825

• 1787-1834 New South Wales, Australia, Settler and Convict Lists at Ancestry; images only ($)
• 1787-1859 New South Wales and Tasmania: Settlers and Convicts at Findmypast - index & images ($)
• 1787-1976 New South Wales, Australia, Miscellaneous Records at Ancestry; images only ($)
• 1788-1842 New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents at Ancestry - index & images ($); Also at Findmypast ($)
• 1788-1849 Irish Convicts to NSW 1788 - 1849, index
• 1788-1856 New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1788-1870 New South Wales, Australia, Convict Registers of Conditional and Absolute Pardons at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1788-1867 Convict records for New South Wales and Tasmania, 1788-1867 at FamilySearch, images.
• 1791-1873 Australia, New South Wales Convicts Index, 1791-1873 at MyHeritage ($), index.
• 1806-1849 New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1806 Muster of all females in the colony, August 1806, at FamilySearch, images.
• 1810-1867 New South Wales, Australia, Certificates of Freedom at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1810-1869 New South Wales, Australia, Tickets of Leave at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1810-1891 New South Wales, Australia, Convict Records at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1811-1813 Convict records of Australia, 1811-1813 at FamilySearch, images.
• 1821-1825 Convict Assignments 1821 to 1825, NSW Archives, index
• 1822-1825 Certificates of application for tickets of leave, 1822-1825 - at FamilySearch, images.
• 1823-1830 Convict records, 1823-1830 - at FamilySearch, images.
• 1824-1886 New South Wales, Australia, Convict Savings Bank Books at Ancestry - index & images ($)

Australia Records

• 1786-1849 Australia Convict Ships 1786-1849 at Findmypast - index & images ($)
• 1787-1867 Web: Australia, Convict Records Index, 1787-1867 at Ancestry - index ($)
• 1787-1788 Australian Convict Transportation Registers – First Fleet, 1787-1788 at Ancestry, Index ($)
• 1788-1842 Australia List of Convicts with Particulars, 1788-1842 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1788-1868 Australia, Convict Index, 1788-1868 at Ancestry, Index ($)
• 1789-1790 Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Second Fleet, 1789-1790 at Ancestry, Index ($)
• 1791-1868 Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Other Fleets & Ships, 1791-1868 at Ancestry, Index ($)
• 1791-1867 Australia Convict Conditional and Absolute Pardons 1791-1867 at Findmypast, Index ($)
• 1791 Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Third Fleet, 1791 at Ancestry, Index ($)
• 1791-1867 Australia Convict Conditional and Absolute Pardons 1791-1867 at Findmypast - index & images ($)
• 1791-1868 Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Other Fleets & Ships, 1791-1868 at Ancestry, Index ($)
• 1824-1874 Australia Convict Tickets Of Leave 1824-1874(*) at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images; Also at: Findmypast($)
• 1829-1879 New South Wales, Australia, Sheriff's Papers, 1829-1879 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1838-1912 Australia, South Australia, Prison Records, 1838-1912 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
• Australia's First Fleet
• First Fleet Online
• Australia's Second Fleet
• Australia's Third Fleet
• Ireland-Australia transportation database, National Archives of Ireland
• Convict Records of Australia
• Library of Wales, Crime and Punishment database
• Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1834 The punishment of transportation for a crime tried in London by the Old Bailey Court resulted in exile to Australia. The site can be search by several categories, including by name for the punishment resulting in transportation.

New South Wales Archive Resources Kit, Including Tasmania Prior to 1825

• Community Access Points A list of libraries and archives which hold microcopies of the Archive Resource Kit records.
  
• The Archive Resources Kit includes the following convict records:

Convict Indents, 1788-1842

Musters and other papers relating to convict ships, 1790-1849 NRS 1155

Registers of convicts' applications to marry, 1825-51

Assignment Registers, 1821-24

Register of Tickets of Leave, 1824-27

Registers of Conditional Pardons, 1791-1825

"The ARK is held by 40 community access points across NSW. The majority of access points are libraries. The ARK consists of microfilm copies of our most popular and heavily used colonial records. Included are records relating to convict arrivals, assisted immigrants, births, deaths and marriages, publicans' licences, electoral rolls, naturalisation, returns of the colony ('Blue Books'), land grants, and the wide range of functions of the Colonial Secretary (1788-1825). You may find that the ARK (or parts of it) are held at a library near you."

Historical Background

• From the early 1800s to the 1853 abolition of penal transportation (known simply as "transportation"), Van Diemen's Land was the primary penal colony in Australia. Following the suspension of transportation to New South Wales, all transported convicts were sent to Van Diemen's Land. In total, some 73,000 convicts were transported to Van Diemen's Land or about 40% of all convicts sent to Australia.
• Male convicts served their sentences as assigned labour to free settlers or in gangs assigned to public works. Only the most difficult convicts (mostly re-offenders) were sent to the Tasman Peninsula prison known as Port Arthur.
• Female convicts were assigned as servants in free settler households or sent to a female factory (women's workhouse prison). There were five female factories in Van Diemen's Land.
• Convicts completing their sentences or earning their ticket-of-leave often promptly left Van Diemen's Land. Many settled in the new free colony of Victoria, to the dismay of the free settlers in towns such as Melbourne.
• Tensions sometimes ran high between the settlers and the "Vandemonians" as they were termed, particularly during the Victorian gold rush when a flood of settlers from Van Diemen's Land rushed to the Victorian goldfields.
• Complaints from Victorians about recently released convicts from Van Diemen's Land re-offending in Victoria was one of the contributing reasons for the eventual abolition of transportation to Van Diemen's Land in 1853.
• The West Coast of Tasmania has a significant convict heritage. The use of the west coast as an outpost to house convicts in isolated penal settlements occurred in the eras 1822–33, and 1846–47.
• The main locations were Sarah Island (known by many in the late twentieth century as Settlement Island) and Grummet Island in Macquarie Harbour. The entrance to Macquarie Harbour was known as Hells Gates.
• Convict parties used the land around the harbour as a work area as far as Gordon River. The prison's existence was for only 15 years, but its hold on the imagination has spawned a significant literature.

Types of Convict Records

Tickets of Leave Butts

• Tickets of leave were issued to convicts having served about half of their sentences with good behavior.
• These tickets allowed convicts to seek employment as they wished but limited their movement to a certain district for the remainder of their sentences.
• Prior to 1828, bench magistrates granted tickets of leave and approved applications for convicts to marry.
• The actual ticket of leave was issued to the convict; the government retained the ticket of leave butts.
• Ticket of leave butts listed the convict’s name, ship, and date of arrival, native place, trade or calling, date and place of trial and sentence, a physical description, and the district to which he or she was confined.

Certificates of Freedom

• A certificate of freedom was a document stating that a convict's sentence had been served and was usually given to convicts with a 7, 10 or 14 year sentence or when they received a pardon.
• Convicts with a life sentence could receive a Pardon, but not a Certificate of Freedom.
• The Certificate of Freedom number was sometimes annotated on the indent or noted on a Ticket of Leave Butt.
• The government retained certificates of freedom butts, which were similar to ticket of leave butts.

Pardons

• Both conditional and absolute pardons were generally granted to convicts with life sentences.
• Conditional pardons required that the ex-convict never return to the British Isles or his or her pardon would be void.
• Absolute pardons allowed an ex-convict to return to the British Isles if he or she wished.
• Pardon records contain information similar to tickets of leave: the convict’s name, ship, and date of arrival, native place, trade or calling, date and place of trial and sentence, a physical description, and the district to which he or she was confined.

Convict indents

• Convict indents were lists that were made when convicts arrived on transport ships.
• Information given in indents is similar to that in tickets of leave but also includes a convict’s marital status and number of children and whether the convict was literate.

For Further Reading

FamilySearch Library

Additional sources are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog:

• Australia, Tasmania - Convict records
• Australia, Tasmania - Convict records - Indexes