Dear Ted Generally speaking, the Tasmanian convict records are arranged by ship and then alphabetically by first letter (so Fowler will be somewhere in the 'F's but not necessarily in strict alphabetical order - the records are actually ordered by trial place but that doesn't help if you don't know the place of trial!). Lesley is correct in that it does help to have more information than a surname if you are searching for a particular convict. A first name and approximate date of arrival is a good start. Assuming you are not just collecting FOWLER convicts, my first question to you would be: why do you think the person you are looking for was a convict? I have written below the steps that I take to find a Tasmanian convict. I hope it helps. Go to: http://www.archives.tas.gov.au/ http://www.archives.tas.gov.au/nameindexes Go to Tasmanian Convicts in the list of name indexes Search for the name [eg FOWLER John}] The result will look like this: 24551 Fowler John 13 Jan 1842 Barossa(1) 30 August 1841 Sheerness Click on the database number [eg 24551] This will bring you to a page headed 'Item Details' which has 'view this record online'. Click on this. This will bring you to the online images for the Barrossa (1). On the right hand side, you can use the image number box to skip pages. There are 367 pages for this ship I guessed that around about 100 would get me close to 'F' so I put '100' in the box and came up with a name starting with F. (it actually starts on p.97 and goes through to p.108) John Fowler is on p.99. All this took only a few minutes. There may be an easier way but this works for me. With best wishes Dianne

Thanks for that Dianne, I will try that. I have names, dates, departure port and name of ship which should help. I don't know for definite if anyone from my Fowler bunch came to Australia before me. I have the line in pretty good detail back to 1812 and one or two have dissappeared into thin air so to speak. If there weren't a villain in the bunch I'd be surprised. I'm sure if one or two of them felt like a free trip, the thought of nicking a chicken or two wouldn't have stopped them. My 2xgreat grandfather married an Ellington girl. Her sister married a Sharman and the Sharmans seem to have made a good try at filling up Tasmania after 1853. Suddenly Fowlers appear in that tree with the Sharmans and I wondered wether those Fowlers had anything to do with mine. I have the impression that the records for convicts is probably better than that of the free settlers and law abiders so I would start there. I did notice in the Tasmanian conduct records one convict was fined 2 pounds for keeping an unlicensed dog! Thats probably a bigger fine than one would have to pay today. Regards Ted ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dianne Snowden" <dsnowden@tassie.net.au> To: <aus-convicts@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2008 11:22 AM Subject: Re: [AUS-CON] Convict FOWLERS > Dear Ted > > Generally speaking, the Tasmanian convict records are arranged by ship and > then alphabetically by first letter (so Fowler will be somewhere in the > 'F's > but not necessarily in strict alphabetical order - the records are > actually > ordered by trial place but that doesn't help if you don't know the place > of > trial!). > > Lesley is correct in that it does help to have more information than a > surname if you are searching for a particular convict. A first name and > approximate date of arrival is a good start. Assuming you are not just > collecting FOWLER convicts, my first question to you would be: why do you > think the person you are looking for was a convict? > > I have written below the steps that I take to find a Tasmanian convict. I > hope it helps. > > Go to: > > http://www.archives.tas.gov.au/ > > http://www.archives.tas.gov.au/nameindexes > > Go to Tasmanian Convicts in the list of name indexes > > Search for the name [eg FOWLER John}] > > The result will look like this: > > 24551 Fowler John 13 Jan 1842 Barossa(1) 30 August 1841 Sheerness > > Click on the database number [eg 24551] > > This will bring you to a page headed 'Item Details' which has 'view this > record online'. Click on this. > > This will bring you to the online images for the Barrossa (1). > > On the right hand side, you can use the image number box to skip pages. > There are 367 pages for this ship I guessed that around about 100 would > get > me close to 'F' so I put '100' in the box and came up with a name starting > with F. (it actually starts on p.97 and goes through to p.108) John Fowler > is on p.99. All this took only a few minutes. There may be an easier way > but > this works for me. > > With best wishes > Dianne > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-CONVICTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature database 3469 (20080924) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > >