Convict - rough guide

Clues that you may have a convict ancestor:

• Marriage certificates

  • If the marriage certificate says 'married with permission of the Governor', this may indicate that one or both parties were convicts still serving their sentences.

• Death certificates

  • A death certificate may state the person was a 'prisoner of the Crown'.

• Muster and census records

  • If your ancestor appears on a muster or early census record, there may be an indication beside their name that they were a convict. 'free by servitude', or had a Ticket of Leave.

• Family Stories

How to catch your convict ancestors:

• Chronological Register of Convicts at Moreton Bay

  • Chronological register of convictions and alphabetical register of convicts at Moreton Bay Penal Settlement.

• Book of Trials held at Moreton Bay

  • Book of trials held at Moreton Bay on the Queensland State Archives website provides three Parts covering - 1 July 1838-17 August 1838, 1 September 1838-18 May 1840 and 29 October 1840-28 February 1842.

• Convict Records of Australia

  • Convict Records of Australia provides access to a British Convict transportation register for convicts who were transported to Australia from 1787 to 1867.

• Criminal registers 

  • Criminal records

• The Digital Panopticon

  • This website searchers records from multiple datasets (both freely available and those behind a paywall) for the 90,000 convicts who passed through the Old Bailey between 1780 and 1925

• Proceedings of the Old Bailey

  • Proceedings of 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court

• London Lives

• British Convict Transportation Registers

  • List of over 123,000 names transported to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries 
  • Includes name of convict, known aliases, place of trial, term, name of ship, date of departure, place of arrival
  • Covers the period 1787 to 1867

[Information from 'Bound for Australia']

• Criminal Registers for England & Wales, 1791-1892 (you can access Ancestry for free with your Ipswich Libraries membership at any of our branches)
• Calendars of Prisoners
• Legal Proceedings
  • Assizes
  • County Quarter Sessions & Borough Sessions (England & Wales)
  • Old Bailey and the Central Criminal Court (London)
  • Palatinate Courts
  • Courts of Great Sessions of Wales
• Sheriffs' assize vouchers
• Prison registers
• British newspapers
• Petitions
• Home Office Warrants
• Transportation order books
• Sheriffs' carvings
• Books of sheriffs' payments
• Treasury warrants
• Prison hulk records
• Convict transportation records arranged by ships
  • Home Office lists
  • Audit Department records
  • Treasury Solicitors' records
  • Privy Council correspondence
  • Admiralty records
  • Admiralty hospital musters
• Ships' records
  • Colonial Office
  • Admiralty correspondence 
• Ships' captains' logs
• Ships' masters' logs
• Ships' lieutenants' logs
• Ships' surgeons' journals and Admiralty hospital musters
• Foreign Office correspondence from the Canary Islands
• Port records at the Cape Archives (South Africa)
• Australian Newspapers
• Convict muster rolls for New South Wales and Tasmania
• Census of New South Wales, 1828
• Pardons and tickets of leave
• Miscellaneous convict records