How many convict relatives in your tree?

[Alison Terao]

I have 5 ... And of yet I've only traced my paternal line, so more may be awaiting discovery.

4 of those convicts are very early - 1790s - and the child of one set of convicts married the daughter of the other set.

The other was transported later and married an Irish immigrant woman.

[Mowsehowse]

4 of those convicts are very early - 1790s - and the child of one set of convicts married the daughter of the other set.   

I guess perhaps it isn't so surprising that convicts mixed with, and married, other convicts?? 

[Alison Terao]

Well it's a little darker than that because in one case she was assigned to him from the "female factory" in Paramatta.
This doesn't mean she didn't choose it though, because contemporary accounts talk about new arrived convict women angling to be assigned to good prospects, who had been pardoned and had land.

[Anneatki]

My Australian born husband has seven direct ancestors who arrived as convicts, & it has been a great learning experience for me as a recent (1967) migrant to find out so much Australian history!
John Tarlington arrived in 1791, he married Mary Ryan,(arrived 1832). George Thornton arrived in 1816, his wife & family followed him out. William Clutton arrived 1817, & lived with one of George's daughters. John Purnell arrived 1830, he married Elizabeth Clarke, who arrived 1838. Christmas Long arrived in 1848.
They were all transported for various thefts for seven years. George Thornton, a pickpocket from Dublin served as a police constable in Sydney! Most of them seemed to do quite well in the new country, & how I would love to speak to them about their lives! Cheers,  Anne

[Mowsehowse]

Anneatki:  how fabulous!   I really envy you having so much material to work on.

[ThrelfallYorky]

At last! I've found a "baddie" - well, sort of..... in OH's lot (of course) he stole a horse and got 7 years in jail .... but in Britain, so doesn't really qualify.
And there I was, thinking all our ancestors were born with halos, and spent what could have been a mis-spent youth diligently polishing those halos.

[andrewalston]

I have several people in my tree who fell foul of the law, but most were only cousins of some sort.
However one of my ggggg grandfathers was sentenced to 7 years' transportation for the theft of 42lb of cotton from a barge. The master of the barge was convicted too.

However, he didn't get a trip to the antipodes; the Napoleonic Wars meant that he spent his years on the hulks at Portsmouth.

[Marvin ballantyne70]

I haven't found one yet though there is a question in the family , why did great great grandpa come here .... Thinking the session records of Carmichael will tell me what he was running from.... And were we just basic heathen we could get away with leaving so little trace behind?... I know the family a bit sceptical of the whole idea of government still ... Even though not being on paper stops the clock it still tells a story ....we was not the first to bend a knee. A bellendein !!

[coombs]

2 years ago I could not find any convicts in my FH so far but now I have found 2 and both were siblings of direct ancestors. And both sent to Oz.

So I may have cousins in Erinsborough and Summer Bay.