Hi Listers, I was wondering where to find departure records for convicts who earned a Absolute Pardons and had left Australia. Now being free, I guess they could travel on ships that other passengers traveled on. In this case, it would be general departure records from Australia. The journey back to the UK was about 5 months I think, where would such vessels stop along the way? Thank you, Marina.

Hi Marina, I hope this is not so basic that it is insulting. Ships from England on the outward journey would stop at places like Rio de Janeiro in South America and Cape Town South Africa. Then they would voyage well to the south of the Australian continent to take advantage of strong westerley winds that were normal in the latitudes of about 40 south. It must have been freezing, and that ocean is quite rough pretty well year round. Not a pleasant voyage. To go the other way they could not sail into those winds, so they normally sailed via the Indonesian archipelago possibly as far as India. As Lesley pointed out, to the north. I noticed in the records quite early in the 19th century ships taking coal to the port of Batavia, now known as Jakarta. Coal was also taken to ports in India. Again as Lesley pointed out, valuable cargos could be picked up in what is now Indonesia and in India or Ceylon. I should check the records, but I expect many also stopped at Cape Town to take on food and water. One wonders why they did not keep heading east to take advantage of the strong westerley winds in the 40 south latitude band. This is just my guess, but the seas around Cape Horn are formidable and apart from that the valubale cargos available from South East Asia and South Asia were too attractive offering the chance to make the voyage a commercial success. It would be interesting to research what cargos they obtained out of Indonesia. One would think the Dutch would limit what they were allowed to take because they would be competing with Dutch ships. Of course maybe they were just happy to sell all that they could. If I ever have time I must check that out. One of my ancestors, Edward Gregory, did go back. He was not a convict, but the husband of a convict. He travelled out on Surrey 1 while his family was on Broxbornebury arrived 1814. The Surrey voyage was notorious with many on board dying from typhus. Mr Gregory must have been extremely anxious to get back to the Old Dart because he sailed on the same ship, the Surrey, in 1818. Presumably a more pleasant trip home, but we don't know what happened to him after that. His wife died a few weeks after he left leaving his children as orphans in the colony. Hardly the sort of ancestor we hold up as a shining example to others. Best regards, John Bushell

Hi John, Very well explained thank you! I am very much a newbie at family history and this was fascinating reading. Just wondering is some ships may have stopped in Valparaiso Chile for supplies etc? Regards, Marina. On 14/02/2009, at 1:19 PM, John Bushell wrote: > Hi Marina, > > I hope this is not so basic that it is insulting. > <snip> > I noticed in the records quite early in the 19th > century ships taking coal to the port of Batavia, now known as > Jakarta. > <snip> > I should check the records, but I expect many also stopped at Cape > Town to > take on food and water.

Hi Marina You won't find a list unfortunately and no one knows just how many convicts returned home. I indexed all the people who left between 1803 and 1811 from the Sydney Gazettes although most of them were probably not convicts who had served their sentence. A bit difficult to tell unless they had an unusual name. Nola Mackey indexed the "Passengers and Crew in and out of Sydney" (from Sydney newspapers) and these are available in 7 books for the following years 1830-1832 1833-35 1836 -37 1838 1839 1840 1841 The names of those arriving and leaving are listed alphabetically and gives the date of arrival or departure and ships name You could also try the AGCI Vol. 2 CD - 1832 - 1863 I think you will find that all ships had to stop of somewhere on the return journey to pick up fresh food and water...... and many went via the north to purchase items to sell (spices, timber etc) in the UK. Regards Lesley Uebel mailto:ckennedy@bigpond.net.au CLAIM A CONVICT http://users.bigpond.net.au/convicts/index.html -----Original Message----- From: aus-pt-jackson-convicts-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:aus-pt-jackson-convicts-bounces@rootsweb.com]On Behalf Of Marina Grainger Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2009 9:19 AM To: aus-pt-jackson-convicts@rootsweb.com Subject: [PJ] Former Convict Departures Hi Listers, I was wondering where to find departure records for convicts who earned a Absolute Pardons and had left Australia. Now being free, I guess they could travel on ships that other passengers traveled on. In this case, it would be general departure records from Australia. The journey back to the UK was about 5 months I think, where would such vessels stop along the way? Thank you, Marina.

Thank you Lesley for those valuable suggestions. I will investigate. I looked up the CD you mentioned below. The SAG site has it for sale which is great. Would it be at larger libraries as I don't use a Windows PC to access the information on it! (I use a Mac). Would be great to have a CD though to look through as needed. Regards, Marina. On 14/02/2009, at 9:58 AM, Lesley Uebel wrote: > > You could also try the AGCI Vol. 2 CD - 1832 - 1863

Hi Lesley "I indexed all the people who left between 1803 and 1811 from the Sydney Gazettes" Have you published this index? I would be looking for Mary Ann Graham, convict, and her husband Isaac Champion, NSW Regiment. Thank you Jan