Convict Query

[DebsE]

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone with a bit of knowledge about the historic convict situation in Tasmania might be able to answer a general query I have.

I'm interested in what happened to the families of those men and women convicted of a crime in England and then transported out to Australia. In researching my partner's tree I've come across situations where men who had wives and children in England as well as women with husbands and children in England, were shipped off to Australia and then remarried in Australia and started new families.

Were these new marriages legal? The ones I've seen all had approved "applications to marry" granted to them. Were convicts given divorces from their wives/husbands when they were deported?

Also could the children or spouses of convicts join them in Australia? Could female convicts in particular, take their children with them? One of the convict forms I found seem to suggest that perhaps the three children of one convict mother may have travelled with her though I haven't yet been able to find a passenger list for that trip.

Can anyone help me out on what may have happened back then?

Cheers,

Debs

[Les de B]

Also could the children or spouses of convicts join them in Australia? Could female convicts in particular, take their children with them?

In relation to the above quote, I will give you an example of my ancestor Mary Clark's petition after being sentenced to 14 transportation to Australia for passing a forged note in a market - she was 26 years old; "........ she humbly states that she has five female children to support without their father, and are at present in a most wretched situation without her assistance, and there fore most humbly throws herself on your humanity..........."

Needless to say, she arrived in Australia in 1826 without any of her children. Here she married twice, once to a former convict of which marriage another daughter was born, another of my ancestors.

Les

[DebsE]

Hi Les,

Thank you for sharing that story.

They certainly were very tough times and the penalties paid often far outweighed the crimes. It's interesting to hear that your ancestor also remarried - it seems to me as if life reset itself for these people once they made it to Australia. It certainly makes an interesting trail for genealogists.

Debs

[tarnee]

Hi Debs,

My 3x ggrandmother was married to a convict he was transported in 1837 to Tasmania from england she remarried 3 years later, he remarried in Tasmania,  l have found no divorce for either. l believe convicts have to apply to get married how my 3xggranny did l have not found out, l thought that they would have to wait the 7 years seems not.

Jean
in Australia

[DebsE]

Hi Jean,

Thanks for sharing your story.

I've found 'permission to marry' applications for the family members I've been looking for but no forms discussing divorces or the like. Maybe the church dissolved the marriages of convicts who were transported overseas?

Either way, I have to just hope that both the convicts and their original spouses re-found happiness with their new spouses.

Debs

[johngirl]

Hi DebsE,

I found this information.

Divorce was not available to the common person until the late 1800s and was expensive and scandalous. Previously married convicts were permitted to remarry after seven years' separation as long as their spouse was abroad, even if they were still living. The Government encouraged marriage between convicts as it was seen as a means of rehabilitation and more desirable than de facto relationships.

My GGGG Grandfather also left his wife and child back in England when he was transported to Tasmania in 1803. He remarried in 1823. He was 50 and my GGGG Grandmother was 22.

  Johngirl

[DebsE]

Hi JohnGirl,

Thank you so much for that information 

Looking at the dates in my files, most of the family members applied the moment the seven years was up so they were obviously all well resigned to the fact that there was no way of ever making it home again or seeing their original families.

Thank you again for finding this information for me.

Debs