My 3rd great grandmother - Charlotte SHAW was born Circa 1823 in Manchester & was tried, convicted on her third offence & transported to Australia (Van Demons Land - VDL) aboard 'Tasmania' in September 1844, arriving in December of the same year. >From her various convict records (of which we have learnt a great deal), she indicated that she had a Mother - Elizabeth at native place, Brothers - James / George (abbreviated & hard to determine if it's Jas OR Geo); Henry; John & William and a Sister - Eliza all living in Manchester. No father is listed & Charlotte herself has said that she had been 'on the town for 5 or 6 years'. We have no marriage certificate/s to provide additional family background & have been relying solely on Charlotte's convict records to provide what information we do have about her life. From what we know, she had two children as a convict, one of whom survived to adulthood & to whom I am descended. I, along with some other family researchers, have been unsuccessful so far in locating Charlotte's family in any Census record prior to her transportation in 1844. There is one family whom we have found with an Elizabeth & a child in the 1841 Census who could be one of Charlotte's brothers, but there is nothing certain about this . . . without more information on ages of her siblings, the task is that much more difficult. I'm wondering if anyone might have further ideas on how we might be able to trace Charlotte's family in Manchester, or are we to be resigned to the fact that this might be all we ever know about them? Kind regards, Shirley FYFE (nee ROBERTS) <mailto:shirleyfyfe@gmail.com.au> shirleyfyfe@gmail.com.au [Researching: BLACK, FLETCHER, FYFE, GORDON, HERBERT, JACKSON, LORD, LUNN, McRAE, MARTIN, PEARLESS, ROBERTS, ROBINSON, SHAW, STENNER]