Aussie Convict records online

As an estimated 22 percent of Australians are descended from British convicts, it is no surprise
that John Howard’s great- great- great grandfather, William Tooley was among those transported
to Australia in 1816. His crime - complicity in the theft of a tortoiseshell watch.

Ancestry.com has released records online of some 165,000 convicts transported to Australia from
1788 to 1868.

Crimes punishable by transportation to the colonies by the British Government seem ranged from
marrying secretly to burning clothes. Most records describe crimes as "felony," "larceny" and
"burglary" but some go into more detail such as obtaining money by false pretences," and
"stealing heifers".

"By today's standards, many of these crimes are minor misdemeanors or are no longer illegal, and
the severity of punishments seem ludicrous," said Megan Smolenyak, Chief Family Historian for
Ancestry.com. "No wonder Australians consider a convict in their family tree a badge of honour and
seek to uncover the amusing, quirky and outrageous details in their family's 'criminal' past."

The convict records typically contain the convict's name, date and place of sentencing, length of
sentence, which is usually 7 years, 14 years or life and sometimes the crime committed.

According to Ancestry.com attributes unique to Aussie bound convicts included:
* A vast majority were English, Irish and Scottish men between the ages of 20 and 24
* Women accounted for some 15 percent of Australian convicts but were outnumbered by men,
six to one
* 39 percent of male and 35 percent of female convicts had no prior convictions
* The oldest convict transported was approximately 60, and the youngest nine
* 1,321 convicts were from other parts of the British Empire
* The majority of convicts were illiterate and convicted for crimes of poverty (theft)
* In the first years of transportation, convict ships were unsanitary and disease ridden;
conditions improved in the later years
* Convicts typically served their sentence building roads, bridges and buildings or for free settlers
• When transportation ended, convicts made up 40 percent of Australia's English-speaking population

www.ancestry.com.au

Courtesy of http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www
/story/07-25-2007/0004632170&EDATE

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