Hi everybody, Can anybody tell me if all Tasmanian birth & marriage records for the early 1800's have been documented, or is it possible that marriages and births went unrecorded, or were recorded at the time and the records lost / not documented ? The reason for my question is: I have a James McARA married Catherine Symes in Sydney 1848. The marriage cert states his age as 25, so that makes him born 1822/1823. There is no mention of parents or birthplace. I have been unable to find him in any shipping records but that of course means nothing as we all know that only a small percentage of records are available. The other remote possibility is that he could be the son of convict James McAra who was in Tasmania in this period. I haven't been able to find any marriage records for this James nor anything that suggests he might have fathered a son, but i still wonder if this is an option. Any ideas ? Thanks Peter Sydney

Hello Peter The records for this period are certainly not comprehensive as regards registration of births. Compulsory registration of births, deaths and marriages was not introduced until 1837 (I think), and even then not all were registered. There is the possibility of turning something up in church records - a baptism. Regards Trudy Dr Trudy Cowley List Administrator TAS Convicts Rootsweb List tcowley@bigpond.net.au AUS-TAS-CONVICTS-L@rootsweb.com -----Original Message----- From: Peter Mayhew [mailto:mayhew@froggy.com.au] Sent: Wednesday, 2 November 2005 7:45 PM To: AUS-TAS-CONVICTS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [TAS-CON] Tasmanian BDM's early 1800's Hi everybody, Can anybody tell me if all Tasmanian birth & marriage records for the early 1800's have been documented, or is it possible that marriages and births went unrecorded, or were recorded at the time and the records lost / not documented ? The reason for my question is: I have a James McARA married Catherine Symes in Sydney 1848. The marriage cert states his age as 25, so that makes him born 1822/1823. There is no mention of parents or birthplace. I have been unable to find him in any shipping records but that of course means nothing as we all know that only a small percentage of records are available. The other remote possibility is that he could be the son of convict James McAra who was in Tasmania in this period. I haven't been able to find any marriage records for this James nor anything that suggests he might have fathered a son, but i still wonder if this is an option. Any ideas ? Thanks Peter Sydney ==== AUS-TAS-CONVICTS Mailing List ==== Visit the Female Factory Historic Site website at http://www.femalefactory.com.au/ ============================== Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx