> > Matt, I would think the reason they they recorded outwardly obvious > features... would be if they were to escape... their outward more obvious > features.. (rather than something that could be easily hidden by a shirt) It > would seem easier to locate them that way... there were no drawings or > photographs in those days.. though I personally wish they had of... would > make life alot more interesting... I am by no means an expert on the > subject... but of the various records of convicts in Moreton Bay that I have > read... from memory there were only a mere few with any distiguishing marks > registered and they were usually because they were facial marks.. I am not > aware of any particular military handbook so to speak as to what they were > to record.. and in most cases one would think that the distiguishing > features would have been sent with their details from England or > whereever... I also expect that there would have been many with (whipping > marks) as distiguishing features as you have read with some of the other > responses.. it was a particularly harsh time. I know that there is a book > with regard to prison management which is post convict... but it was still a > copy of the british one.. maybe it might say something in there..about what > they were to record... I shall look into it for you.. > Regards Sue