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Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: msr on Monday 19 October 20 18:25 BST (UK)
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Hello All
Is there anywhere I would be able to find out when, and how, a person transported in 1838, having served his sentence and received a certificate of freedom in 1846, might have returned to England?
Susan
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Unless he had a very wealthy family back in the UK. I would doubt he would have. As the cost of return was extortionately high.
Many felt that they may have more of a chance in this new colony and made good lives for themselves. One of my ancestors was pardoned in Tasmania and finished up a well respected farmer.
The biggest answer is a very small percentage ever made it back to the UK.
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Hi - it was more often the case that did not return to the UK, there were good opportunities in the new colony and many ended up married, earning income, owning property etc. So, the first step would be to check newspapers, marriage records etc in Australia to see if they stayed. If they seem to disappear from the records here then check the UK records (also consider New Zealand). I can only recall a couple of convicts returning, and they did so as working as crew on ships. Who are you looking for?
M
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I agree with the above suggestions that most convicts didn't return to UK. Why do you doubt your convict left Australia?
Presume you have searched for various spelling of your ancestor's christian & surname, and checked the convict record for a possible alias.
I've found the early Aus newspapers, (online Trove) very useful in hunting for those old bones.
Cheers,
Valsgirl
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Agree with above observations . also take into consideration - some pardonned convicts did not refer to their convict past much once free. Many convicts tried to lose their origins once they'd become freemen/women.
My GGGgrandfather's family knew him as a 'patriarch of the colony' - (and so he was!!) He arrived in Hobart a free man, having spent 20 years as a convict elsewhere. . . . BUT he arrived free in Hobart.
The only way of finding if they might have returned would be the shipping records I believe - and from experience, I think they are not wonderful.
Wiggy
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I have a xGreat Uncle who was tried, convicted, sentenced to death (3 counts of burglary and highway robbery), commuted to transportation.
He then served out his time and received the Freedom Cert but it was Conditional that he never returned to the UK or indeed any Colonial Country except Australia.
Maybe your ancestor also had a Conditional Cert.
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One of my husband's ancestors served his time and returned to his home in Norfolk to find his wife had died. He remarried and had more children. He appears in the 1841 census.
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Thanks for the replies ( and hello again Wiggy!).
I understand what you are all saying, but workhouse records found from 1861 onwards, and a further court appearance in 1865 with a 3 month sentence, all point to him having returned at some point.
If anyone can find Obadiah Bann (sometimes Tunnicliffe), born 1807 in Macclesfield, Cheshire, anywhere that I have not found him, I would appreciate the advice.
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Have you seen UKbmd 1870 death, reg Birmingham, for an Obediah Bann, aged 65yr?
Valsgirl
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Have you seen UKbmd 1870 death, reg Birmingham, for an Obediah Bann, aged 65yr?
Valsgirl
I have Valsgirl, and I think it quite possible due to the absence of any other of that name being found - anywhere. He is buried in Witton Cemetery, so may have to follow that through.
I may send for the death cert, but I've only just started looking into Obadiah in the past week after finding him named in his grandmother's Will. Obidiah is my 2C4R, so not close, but I have become interested in him.
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I agree, Obadiah certainly seems to have led a "different" life. "Familysearch" Cheshire records have workhouse admissions & sunday school records for Obadiah, which I guess you've explored.
I learnt he can read & write, his occupation is listed as shoemaker, so he's educated, & should be employable. Why, when, for whatever reason, he returns to Cheshire after serving his sentence in NSW, does he end up in the workhouse about 12 times (from admission records) between 1861 - 1870? Is there more than one Obadiah Bann? Baptism records say his Mum is Nancy BAND and no Dad is recorded, Maybe, Nancy married / lived with with Mr Tunnicliffe - hence Obadiah's surname choice.
Interesting that his Grandmother left a Will, and more interesting that her wayward grandson is mentioned.
Oh, so many possibilities! Thank you, I'm enjoying "playing with" your distant ancestor.
Happy hunting, Valsgirl (Brisbane, Australia)
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Thanks for the replies ( and hello again Wiggy!).
I understand what you are all saying, but workhouse records found from 1861 onwards, and a further court appearance in 1865 with a 3 month sentence, all point to him having returned at some point.
If anyone can find Obadiah Bann (sometimes Tunnicliffe), born 1807 in Macclesfield, Cheshire, anywhere that I have not found him, I would appreciate the advice.
I agree, Obadiah certainly seems to have led a "different" life. "Familysearch" Cheshire records have workhouse admissions & sunday school records for Obadiah, which I guess you've explored.
I learnt he can read & write, his occupation is listed as shoemaker, so he's educated, & should be employable. Why, when, for whatever reason, he returns to Cheshire after serving his sentence in NSW, does he end up in the workhouse about 12 times (from admission records) between 1861 - 1870? Is there more than one Obadiah Bann? Baptism records say his Mum is Nancy BAND and no Dad is recorded, Maybe, Nancy married / lived with with Mr Tunnicliffe - hence Obadiah's surname choice.
Interesting that his Grandmother left a Will, and more interesting that her wayward grandson is mentioned.
Oh, so many possibilities! Thank you, I'm enjoying "playing with" your distant ancestor.
Happy hunting, Valsgirl (Brisbane, Australia)
Have you searched for Abadiah BAND ... So given name commencing with a capital A and his surname concluding with the letter D?
I can see Abadiah BAND on several NSW indexes, :) per Lord Lyndoch to Sydney 1838.
JM
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Where will I find records of Abadiah Band JM? Nothing is coming up for me with that name.
I grew up with the name Bann, so understand how many times it could be thought different. We had so many queries as to how to spell it, that I was always ready with Bann, B A double N, just to make sure no-one got it wrong.
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Yes, just found Abadiah's cert of freedom in 1845, it's the same one as Obadiah Tunnicliffe alias Band.
But why is there another in 1846?
I don't see any other records for Abadiah though. Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place.
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I agree, Obadiah certainly seems to have led a "different" life.
Is there more than one Obadiah Bann? Baptism records say his Mum is Nancy BAND and no Dad is recorded, Maybe, Nancy married / lived with with Mr Tunnicliffe - hence Obadiah's surname choice.
Interesting that his Grandmother left a Will, and more interesting that her wayward grandson is mentioned.
Oh, so many possibilities! Thank you, I'm enjoying "playing with" your distant ancestor.
Happy hunting, Valsgirl (Brisbane, Australia)
As far as I'm aware there is only one. 'Nancy' was born and baptised as Ann, and her mother Sarah (Rawson) Bann definitely mentioned Obadiah Bann. As for the use of Tunnicliffe, it has certainly given me pause for thought. There was an Obadiah Tunnicliffe whose Will I have seen. He lived in Macclesfield as did the Bann families. He was a silk merchant with factories and properties, and you know how the mind works, inventing stories, so I have paired him and Ann in a clandestine relationship producing an illegitimate son who was named after his father, and who later used the surname in order to try to get out of trouble! Didn't work though. ;)
Of course, that's an imagining, but who knows?
Ann/Nancy did marry twice, although I haven't found a record of the first. Maybe not married, but Ann and Mr Bayley produced 2 children (1818 and 1821) before his death in 1828. She married again in 1829.
Now I really must go to bed, it being 11:35pm, but thanks for your input.
Susan
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I have a man who was transported leaving wife and family behind. His wife seems to have had a relationship with someone else in the meantime and a child resulted.
Then the couple and younger children turn up in Canada.
So either he came back to England first and they travelled to Canada as a family. Or they were in contact somehow and agreed to meet up in Canada - not easy without phones or email!
They were just Ag Labs so I don't know how they afforded it.
Details here
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=828710.msg6928728#msg6928728