How many Convicts are you descended from?

[spices]

I have not read all of the thread BUT it is so "fashionable" now to have a convict connection.

I knew when I was a wee child that I was descendent from convicts. ( not proper grammar)

Thomas was one of the Wiltshire Machine Breakers & Mary uttered Base Coin.

I think the generation prior did not discuss such matters as we do now.
I must say I find family research fascinating -- I just wish I had stated umpteen years earlier

[Keitht]

Hi Majm and Johngirl,

I already have some of the information you suggest and it is the absence of a cause of death attached to his convict recors which arouses my suspicion. I must admit that I hadn't thought to try newspaper archives. That is something I nust delve into.

With regard to George's wife's remarriage, with eight chilfren it would have been a simple economic neccessity, With the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the resultant loss of military contracts Birmingham's economy had all but collapsed, which, I'm guessing, is what led George into crime. There was mass unemployment and he had a large family to feed.

Thank you both for the links you have provided.

Keith

[Keitht]

Is this wierd, or what? Despite George Chatterley's 1822 death I have now uncovered what appears to be a "release" date on 1 August 1831. It must be the right George because it mentions the Lady Castlereagh.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/8646004?searchTerm=George%20Chatterley&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom|||dateTo|||sortby|||l-state=Tasmania

Keith

[majm]

Hi Keith,

I am not sure IF the lieutenant governor's administrative processes in 1822 required him to be notified of the name of the deceased person being buried.    But I do know that it was logical for the governor's administration to issue Certificates of Freedom once the sentence had been served.   Your chap was sentenced to 14 years transportation beyond the seas.    So, perhaps the admin were simply notifying that those 14 years had expired, but were not aware of his decease. 

...... period for which the under-mentioned persons were transported expiring at the date opposite their names,Certificates of Freedom may be obtained on that or at any subsequent period, upon application to this Office, or to that of a Police Magistrate in the Interior :-

The notice does not say that George collected his Certificate of Freedom.....

Cheers,  JM

[Keitht]

Hi JM.

Thanks for your thoughts on that. I had pretty much come to the same conclusion. It's obvious that the left habd not knowing what the right hand is doing is not simply a modern phenomenon,

Thanks again.

Keith

[Milly Mac]

Hi Bellejaz,
I am 5th generation Aussie and descended from two Convicts, John Nicholls was a First Fleet convict (1788 - ship - Scarborough) who married Ann Pugh, also a convict. After his term was served he ended up with a rather large land grant for farming which is now Parramatta NSW.
They had numerous children, I'm still tracing some of them. 
Kind Regards,
Milly Mac.

[fastfusion]

I have 5 convicts in the family tree.... 4 on the Eleanor.. being 2 brothers and 2 cousins.....

however nort of those is my direct line.......  BUT are related directly.......   each one of them had interesting lives and are well recorded.......    the brother of the 5th convict was an equally nasty little fellow and got the convict in trouble but didnt get sent to Australia.

Between the two latter ones mentioned they stole a bible , amongst other things, belonging to their grandfather......   it took some doing and research to track the life of the bible published in 1761; and cost a thousand dollars to get the bible out of a bookshop which had been out of the family for nearly 225 years.     

I see someone else posted the Eleanor here and as that person probably knows Tasmania is a reflection of Wiltshire in names and families.........   but at the end of the day and night its better to have a convict in the family than none at all cos at least u have some stories to tell.....

[Nanna52]

Still looking.  Haven't properly researched my fathers side yet.

[Noy1818]

Just saw the topic, even though it was written awhile ago, thought I would post something. I am related to 6 convicts. I am still researching my mother's mums side.

Michael Noy (stole a donkey- 14 year sentence)
Mary Ann Davis (8 year old who forged money)
Ann Monks (stole clothes)
George Howes (machine smasher in industrial revolution)
John Dodds (burglar- life sentence)
Mary Gager (forged money)