Au Trivia

claireshaeffer

claireshaeffer

VFG Member
Among the first 760 convicts transported to Australia to settle in a penal colony were milliners, lacemakers, tailors, weavers, and shoemakers. (Linn's Stamp News, 9-28-87)

Many of the prisoners had been convicted of very minor crimes such as stealing a loaf of bread or not paying their bills.
 
Very true Claire - one of my ancestors, a young Irish lass, was sent here for stealing a handkerchief. Incredible that such a small mistake could cause such a huge change in your life.

Nicole
 
Yes - you could get sent to Australia for almost nothing. I stumble across these stories here and there in my work.

I talked to a representative of the Port Arthur historical site only the other week at a workshop organised by Tourism Tasmania, and happened to write up an itinerary for Tasmania at the office yesterday. These clients have an itinerary differing from our usual program and I had to look up a few things and pretty much every town I looked up on one particular route had something to do with convict labour or prisons. What I found sounded absolutely horrible was a "Female Factory", where women convicts were sent "on probation".

Karin
 
I'm sure the Australians already know that the reason convicts were sent to Au was because the British lost the Revolutionary War in the U.S. Before the war, most were sent to GA where I grew up, but my mother didn't find any in our ancestors.
 
Yes, I am sure that the trades that the convicted were engaged in, also had a lot to do with the decision to transport them as convicts , with the early penal settlment needing workers with those skills- at least tailors and weavers anyway maybe.Australias history can be so fascinating, and so many of us have convict history. Mine is not quite as exciting- my great great grandfather ( I think thats right?)-came here from the UK in about 1845 , and went to a debtors prison. Cheers, Gayle x
 
Gayle, one of my British ancestors was the "pirate" Dampier who was one of the first explorers to travel to Au and gave many items names. The Brits considered him a pirate, but those were the only ships available for travel.

According to a biography several years ago, Dampier had no children. The Dampier Society in the U.S. obviously doesn't agree.
 
Wow, I hadn't heard of Dampier befor :BAGUSE: but I just looked him up. What an incredible story! And now I know what Roebuck Bay and the Dampier Peninsula have been named for :spin:. Reminds me of my trip to Cape Leveque again... Funny thing is - just today I read a newspaper article about Broome, which mentions one of the Aborigine guides we had at Cape Leveque, and now I read this - seems something wanted to remind me very much of that trip today!

And it's great to be able to trace one's family back so far! No such luck for me, at least not on my mother's side - just the big mystery who my great-great-great-grandfather was that we keep sepculating about...

Karin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top