<< [Back to Press releases]

CONVICT ANCESTORS COME TO LIFE: PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONS LAUNCHED ONLINE

Ancestry.com.au launches List of Convicts with Particulars, 1788-1842 containing information on approximately 23,000 convicts

An estimated 4 million Australians have convict ancestors

Ever wondered where your hairy legs come from? Or perhaps it’s your ruddy complexion, flaxen hair or so-called frugal nature…

We often boast about the crimes of our convict ancestors, but with the online launch of new historical records Australians can now also get a picture of what they looked like and information about their finances as they forged a new life in the early Australian colony.

Ancestry.com.au today launched online the List of Convicts with Particulars, 1788-1842*, which contain information for 23,000 convicts, ranging from their standing number to detailed physical descriptions and also ‘insightful remarks’ recorded about them by bureaucrats of the day.

Also launched were the Convict Savings Bank Books, 1824-1886, which contain details about the amount of money more than 3,000 convicts brought to Australia, the interest earned, other payment information and special remarks.

With an estimated 22 percent of Australians having convict ancestry, these historical collections will help many Australians to continue piecing together their family’s puzzle by providing insightful and often colourful descriptions of their ancestors.

Descriptions featured in the List of Convicts with Particulars include:

Mr Avery, a Brass Founder from Birmingham, is described as 5'6 tall, with hazel eyes, flaxen hair and a pale complexion. The bureaucrat then goes on to describe him as ‘indolent’

Terrence Rudden, 21 years, convicted in Cavan, Ireland for ‘Administering Unlawful Oaths’ and sentenced to life in the colony, is described as having a dark ruddy complexion, brown hair, hazel grey eyes and hairy legs

Ancestry.com.au Managing Director Josh Hanna comments: “For most of us it is impossible to know what our ancestors who lived before the invention of photography looked like, and so to get an idea of both their physical description and also a description of their character is very rare indeed.

“We are all in some way a product of our ancestry, and for many family researchers and enthusiasts the physical descriptions and financial information detailed in these collections will help them to piece together yet more of their family’s puzzle, and perhaps even explain the origins of some of their own physical and character traits.”

The List of Convicts with Particulars, 1788-1842 and Convict Savings Bank Books, 1824-1886 are available online at Ancestry.com.au through a 14-day free trial.

The original records are located at The National Archives in Kew, United Kingdom. Family historians have previously only been able to access the information on microfilm at libraries.