New Genealogy Book


'Criminal Ancestors: a guide to historical criminal records in England and Wales' by David T. Hawkings is a revised and updated study that includes material held by all County and Borough Record Offices, The National Archives, police archives and other repositories. A genealogist who discovers a criminal in the family tree will find this book an invaluable guide.

Convicts online - The State Library of Queensland released its British Convict Transportation Database covering the years 1787 to 1867. This details about 123,000 of the 160,000 convicts who were transported to the different Australian colonies in this period. The Tasmanian Convict database is also worth checking out. This is a comprehensive list of all convicts transported to Tasmania from 1804, and includes those who committed crimes within the colony and who were convicted locally up to 1893. The State Records of NSW continues to add to its excellent series of online indexes, although it doesn't provide digitised images. Indexes to convict records now include Convict Bank accounts 1837-1870; Certificates of Freedom 1823 to 1869; convict exiles 1846 to 1850 (those transported after the official cessation of convict transportation to New South Wales); pardons 1791 to 1825, 1837 to 1847; Tickets of Exemption from government labour 1827 to 1832.

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