What happened to the children of people transported to Australia around 1825

[bearkat]

The survival of workhouse records can be patchy but there are some online.  See

https://www.workhouses.org.uk/records/

[Megatill]

The survival of workhouse records can be patchy but there are some online.  See

https://www.workhouses.org.uk/records/

Thanks (and Hi! again) Bearcat

Tried the Workhouse records - found father William Blacklock in London Workhouse at age 11, and again aged 36 where he died, but no other Blacklocks I can attach to William's family.

I'm now thinking that Elizabeth the Daughter must have entered service, in some manner.


Megan in Sydney
2024-09-14  2227hrs

[BarbW]

Have you contacted the Female Convicts Research Centre in Tasmania (Van Diemens Land). I did some research with them years ago and the convict registers were very detailed in some cases, some not so much. 

femaleconvicts.org.au

[Megatill]

Have you contacted the Female Convicts Research Centre in Tasmania (Van Diemens Land). I did some research with them years ago and the convict registers were very detailed in some cases, some not so much. 

femaleconvicts.org.au

Barb - that is such a good idea - I completely forgot about the FCRC!!!!   I'll get onto that today!

Thank you!

Megan in Sydney
2024-09-15  0958am

[Megatill]

Barb's suggestion of the Tasmanian Female Convicts Research Center did show both Elizabeth Blacklocks (mother and daughter) but no information on daughter Elizabeth doing anything noteworthy before her apprehension early in 1835 and her subsequent conviction and sentencing to 7 years Transportation later in 1835.


However, there was an indication of Service for daughter Elizabeth, so that is now my hypothesis; when Elizabeth the mother was transported in 1825, when daughter Elizabeth was 11 years old, Elizabeth the daughter found domestic (or some other) service to survive.

Thank you, everyone!!! A fascinating journey!


Megan in Sydney
2024-09-15   1359hrs

[Elwyn Soutter]

I had  an ancestor who was transported to Australia in 1829. She had 1 illegitimate child and it definitely didn’t go with her. Most prisoners were to be released on parole, on arrival in Australia, to work, so I assume the authorities wouldn’t have wanted them to have dependant children that might prevent or restrict them from working.

In my case I had a think about what might have happened and I looked in the 1841 census for the child. I thought it might have been fostered out. I found it with what proved to be one of my ancestor’s sisters who was married and living in Dundee.

In Scotland where my ancestor lived, the workhouse system didn’t start till the late 1830s. Prior to that the church often supported orphans and abandoned children (and the poor generally). In my case, I found Kirk Session records (that would be Select Vestry in England I think) showing payment of sums of money, for many years, to the sister in Dundee for the transported lady’s child’s upkeep.

[bearkat]

Did they ever find each other in Australia?

[Elwyn Soutter]

Did they ever find each other in Australia?

I assume that question is addressed to me.

No they never met up again. Principally because the mother died in Parramatta Hospital in about 1838. She had recently completed her 7 years and had just given notice to marry another ex-convict. A guide at Parramatta suggested she was probably pregnant (most of the women there then were, she said) and so her death may have been related to that. She was only about 30.

That she had died was known back in Scotland though because when her illegitimate son died in Dundee in the 1850s, his death certificate named his mother and recorded the fact that she was dead. So there was evidently some communication back and forth, by someone somehow.

[bearkat]

You always hope these things will have a happy ending but things were stacked against them.