A collection of convict transportation registers from 1787 to 1867 containing the details of over 125,000 convicts who were transported to the various Australian colonies.
A collection of convict transportation registers from 1787 to 1867 containing the details of over 125,000 convicts who were transported to the various Australian colonies.
These records contain details of over 125,000 convicts tried in England, Scotland, and Wales, as well as a small number of Irish convicts, between the years of 1787 and 1867.
The amount of information listed varies, but the convict transportation registers usually include a combination of the following information about your ancestor:
Name
Arrival year
Ship name
Year of conviction
Place of conviction
Length of sentence
Country
Folio and page number
It should be noted that not all of this information may be listed on every record, and in some cases, fields may be blank or missing. The amount of information varies depending on the level of detail recorded in the original source document from which it was derived.
Images are provided by The National Archives.
Although it is not an exhaustive list of every convict sent to Australia, this collection is nevertheless a good place to start searching for your convict ancestors. It comprises both indexes and images of the original handwritten records themselves.
However, these records mainly include convicts who were convicted in England, Scotland and Wales, with a small number of Irish convicts listed.
Between 1787 and 1867, convicts were transported to Australia and Tasmania. Prior to that time, transportation was to America and the West Indies. In the years following 1615, it became more common for convicts’ death sentences to be stayed contingent upon transportation.
If you cannot find your ancestor in these transportation registers, try searching for them in the other Australian convict records Findmypast has, linked to in the Useful Links & Resources section.
If you know that your ancestor ran into legal trouble while in England and Wales and cannot find them in this collection, you can also search Findmypast’s large collection of criminal records covering England and Wales: England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935, which includes over three million criminal records.