Tag Archives: convict

Did you know that ……….was now online?

Every day more record sets are added to online family history websites – mainly the pay per view sites.  Gone are the days of having to go to a specific town to visit a church who still held their own records or an archives – well that is unless you want to!

I have just clicked on Find My Past to see what is new there and here are a few of their newbies – some may be of interest and help you with your research.

South Yorkshire Asylum Admission Records 1872 – 1910, later known as Middlewood Hospital and contains over 17,000 records.  The information revealed not only gives names and dates of admission but some records give details of the persons insanity and if they recovered or not.

 Sheffield Cathedral Church of St Peter and Paul burial index 1767 – 1812 – these records contain over 44,000 transcripts from the registers with the information including:- deceased’s name, date of burial, occupation and next of kin.  The next of kin is wonderful when trying to work out if a person is yours or not.

Still in South Yorkshire, the Sheffield Quarter Sessions 1880 – 1912. The transcript gives details of the person being tried and their offences and of course, the sentence.

North West Kent, Westerham Burials 1686-1981 and Greenwich Burials 1748-1937  a collection of over 40,000 transcriptions to get your teeth into.

Venturing further north Lanarkshire, the People of New Lanark 1785 – 1953, contains a collection of transcriptions from church records, Sheriff Court and High Court records and the Lanark prison register

Leaving the UK, New South Wales Deaths 1788 – 1888. The index from three districts gives details of full name, birth and death year, plus parents first name.  New South Wales Marriages and New South Wales Births 788 – 1914, both giving useful information if you have family living in the area.

So now to what’s new on Ancestry –  Firstly, Perth, Scotland, Burgh Burial Index 1794 – 1855. Scotland Prison Records and the 1851 census  index for Scotland. 

Uk, Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths 1750 – 1950 and includes over 12,000 from the Scottish coal fields.

So, looks like there may be something of interest for a lot of people, especially as the 2 sites mentioned may have some offers going around this time of year.

Find My Past – Irish and Australian sites

Find My Past has recently set up sites for Ireland and Australia with information specific to those countries.  Fantastic I hear you say, and yes I agree, but there is a BUT !  If you are an annual subscriber to FMP you would think that for an extra charge you would be given entry to those two sites – NO.

Unlike Ancestry, who for an extra charge or upgrade the world becomes your oyster and you can visit any section i.e.   ancestry.ca (Canada) ; ancestry.com (USA); ancestry.com.au ( Australia) and even ancestry.fr (France) to name a few.

120x60: I’m, your Nan

Ancestry                              FMP England                  FMP Ireland                         FMP Australia

So, after all which do I prefer ?  Well, to tell the truth I love Ancestry as I find the search easier especially for the census as I know where my rellies were born but not where they were living.  FMP likes you to put where your family were living…. come on how are you supposed to know where they went after they were born.  I have one family who moved after the birth of every child, and they didn’t just move around the corner they moved big time!

A birth certificate tells you where they were born but does not give you a crystal ball and tell you where they will be months or years later – I wish one came as standard !

Find My Past does or did have records that were stand alone to them and were very useful when I was transcribing naval records for war memorials.

So, if anyone at Brightsolid is reading this, just think about those of us whose families venture overseas or in the case of Australia came from overseas.  Twoor three memberships may not be an option but an upgrade could well be a possibility in these days where we have limited income to spend on things that we love!!

Digitised Australian Newspapers

Have just found this website and thought you may enjoy having a look around aswell!

So, do you have ancestors in Australia, if you do, have a look.  The date range of the newspapers and magazines starts around 1800 and goes up to the mid – late 1900’s – but there are big gaps. A seperate page lets you see at a glance what the coverage is.

What did my couple of minutes mooching find ? I searched for convict, sorry but the first thing that came to mind and I found this :-

John Horace Hays an habitual criminal who escaped from Yatala labour prison near Adelaide on Wednesday afternoon has so far succeeded in eluding the systematic efforts of the police to recapture him (Northrn Territory Times Tuesday April 15 1930.

And, our Outlands correspondent writes :- Mrs Arthur Turner of Oatlands had received the sad news that her husband, Private Arthur Turner, had died of wounds in France.  Much sympathy is felt for her and the little children (The Mercury, Hobart, Saturday 27 January 1917.

Also, there is mention of Baden Powell in one of the 1900 issues where is in South Africa.

I did searches for a few family names that I know were in Australia and did come up with some interesting information.

But, and most things have a ‘BUT’ don’t they and so does this site, very good as it is.  The niggle is that the information, the pages have been scanned using possibly OCR and as we know if the print is off a little an ‘o’ can become an ‘e’ or an ‘a’ can become an ‘o’ and some letters are left blank.

But, yes there is another one and quite a good one this time – the site gives you the option to edit the text translation, now isn’t that good and makes it easier for people who follow you to find the family or entry they want.

The site is quite easy to work your way round, and probably like me, you will wander.

Well done, Australian Trove, and I look forward to visiting again and finding lots of empty years being filled in.