This may be considered by some to be a Non-Genealogical or Non-Lanark related topic...but I can assure you that it is definitely related. Before 1788, Australia was populated by about 300,000 aborigines Britain made the decision that .the only way to overcome the overcrowding in the jails was to establish a penal colony in the land discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770. The convicts would be transported, never to return to Britain. On 26th January, 222 years ago, (in 1788) Britain sent out Eleven (11) Ships, . The ships were laden with 759 convicts, their Marine guards, some with families, and a few civil officers. This then was first Settlement of the colony of New South Wales, later known as AUSTRALIA We Australians would not have existed except for the landing of the First Fleet and the settlement of the Colony.. Many of us on the Lanark List can trace out ancestral roots back to ancestors of that First Fleet...or another Fleet..such as myself, who has a Lanark born soldier, who came to Australia as one of the Guards of Convicts, on such a Convict Ship. Happy Australia Day, Mates Cheers Gay Research Names: http://www.perthdps.com/research/fie01.html E-mail message checked by Internet Security (6.0.1.441) Database version: 6.14210 http://www.pctools.com/en/internet-security/