Tasmania Convict Records

Tasmania

 * Indexes to Convict Records at State Library of Tasmania - List of convict databases
 * 1787-1859 - New South Wales and Tasmania: Settlers and Convicts 1787-1859 at FindMyPast, Index ($)
 * 1800-1893 - Tasmania Convict Records 1800-1893 at FindMyPast, Index ($)
 * 1800-1899 - Tasmania, Australia, Convict Court and Selected Records, 1800-1899 at Ancestry, Index ($)
 * 1803-1893 - Records of the Tasmanian Convict Department 1803-1893 e-book
 * 1803-1893 - Convicts (1803-1893) at Libraries Tasmania. Convicts transported to Tasmania and those convicted locally through the convict system.
 * 1806-1849 - New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806-1849 at Ancestry, Index ($)
 * 1833-1854 - Tasmania, Australia, Baptisms of Children of Convicted Women, 1833-1854 at Ancestry, Index ($)
 * 1834-1859 - New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia, Convict Pardons and Tickets of Leave, 1834-1859 at Ancestry, Index ($)

Australia Records

 * 1674-1834 - Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1834 The punishment of transportation for a crime tried in London by the Old Bailey Court resulted in exile to Australia. The site can be search by several categories, including by name for the punishment resulting in transportation.
 * 1786-1849 - Australia Convict Ships 1786-1849 at FindMyPast - index & images ($)
 * 1787-1867 - Web: Australia, Convict Records Index, 1787-1867 at Ancestry - index ($)
 * 1788-1842 - Australia List of Convicts with Particulars, 1788-1842 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
 * 1791-1867 - Australia Convict Conditional and Absolute Pardons 1791-1867 at FindMyPast - index & images ($)
 * 1791-1868 - Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Other Fleets & Ships, 1791-1868 at Ancestry, Index ($)
 * 1824-1874 - (*) at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images; Also at: FindMyPast($)
 * 1829-1879 - New South Wales, Australia, Sheriff's Papers, 1829-1879 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
 * 1838-1912 - at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * Australia's First Fleet
 * First Fleet Online
 * Australia's Second Fleet
 * Australia's Third Fleet
 * Ireland-Australia transportation database, National Archives of Ireland
 * Convict Records of Australia
 * Library of Wales, Crime and Punishment database

New South Wales Archive Resources Kit, Including Tasmania Prior to 1825

 * Community Access Points A list of libraries and archives which hold microcopies of the Archive Resource Kit records.
 * The Archive Resources Kit includes the following convict records:
 * Convict Indents, 1788-1842
 * Musters and other papers relating to convict ships, 1790-1849	NRS 1155
 * Registers of convicts' applications to marry, 1825-51
 * Assignment Registers, 1821-24
 * Register of Tickets of Leave, 1824-27
 * Registers of Conditional Pardons, 1791-1825

"The ARK is held by 40 community access points across NSW. The majority of access points are libraries. The ARK consists of microfilm copies of our most popular and heavily used colonial records. Included are records relating to convict arrivals, assisted immigrants, births, deaths and marriages, publicans' licences, electoral rolls, naturalisation, returns of the colony ('Blue Books'), land grants, and the wide range of functions of the Colonial Secretary (1788-1825). You may find that the ARK (or parts of it) are held at a library near you."

Historical Background

 * From the early 1800s to the 1853 abolition of penal transportation (known simply as "transportation"), Van Diemen's Land was the primary penal colony in Australia. Following the suspension of transportation to New South Wales, all transported convicts were sent to Van Diemen's Land. In total, some 73,000 convicts were transported to Van Diemen's Land or about 40% of all convicts sent to Australia.
 * Male convicts served their sentences as assigned labour to free settlers or in gangs assigned to public works. Only the most difficult convicts (mostly re-offenders) were sent to the Tasman Peninsula prison known as Port Arthur.
 * Female convicts were assigned as servants in free settler households or sent to a female factory (women's workhouse prison). There were five female factories in Van Diemen's Land.
 * Convicts completing their sentences or earning their ticket-of-leave often promptly left Van Diemen's Land. Many settled in the new free colony of Victoria, to the dismay of the free settlers in towns such as Melbourne.
 * Tensions sometimes ran high between the settlers and the "Vandemonians" as they were termed, particularly during the Victorian gold rush when a flood of settlers from Van Diemen's Land rushed to the Victorian goldfields.
 * Complaints from Victorians about recently released convicts from Van Diemen's Land re-offending in Victoria was one of the contributing reasons for the eventual abolition of transportation to Van Diemen's Land in 1853.
 * The West Coast of Tasmania has a significant convict heritage. The use of the west coast as an outpost to house convicts in isolated penal settlements occurred in the eras 1822–33, and 1846–47.
 * The main locations were Sarah Island (known by many in the late twentieth century as Settlement Island) and Grummet Island in Macquarie Harbour. The entrance to Macquarie Harbour was known as Hells Gates.
 * Convict parties used the land around the harbour as a work area as far as Gordon River. The prison's existence was for only 15 years, but its hold on the imagination has spawned a significant literature.

Tickets of Leave Butts

 * Tickets of leave were issued to convicts having served about half of their sentences with good behavior.
 * These tickets allowed convicts to seek employment as they wished but limited their movement to a certain district for the remainder of their sentences.
 * Prior to 1828, bench magistrates granted tickets of leave and approved applications for convicts to marry.
 * The actual ticket of leave was issued to the convict; the government retained the ticket of leave butts.
 * Ticket of leave butts listed the convict’s name, ship, and date of arrival, native place, trade or calling, date and place of trial and sentence, a physical description, and the district to which he or she was confined.

Certificates of Freedom

 * A certificate of freedom was a document stating that a convict's sentence had been served and was usually given to convicts with a 7, 10 or 14 year sentence or when they received a pardon.
 * Convicts with a life sentence could receive a Pardon, but not a Certificate of Freedom.
 * The Certificate of Freedom number was sometimes annotated on the indent or noted on a Ticket of Leave Butt.
 * The government retained certificates of freedom butts, which were similar to ticket of leave butts.

Pardons

 * Both conditional and absolute pardons were generally granted to convicts with life sentences.
 * Conditional pardons required that the ex-convict never return to the British Isles or his or her pardon would be void.
 * Absolute pardons allowed an ex-convict to return to the British Isles if he or she wished.
 * Pardon records contain information similar to tickets of leave: the convict’s name, ship, and date of arrival, native place, trade or calling, date and place of trial and sentence, a physical description, and the district to which he or she was confined.'''

Convict indents

 * Convict indents were lists that were made when convicts arrived on transport ships.
 * Information given in indents is similar to that in tickets of leave but also includes a convict’s marital status and number of children and whether the convict was literate.

FamilySearch Library
Additional sources are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog: