Hi, Thank you I did follow the URL's I received from Teresa and discovered that Thomas was 5'11" had brown hair, hazel eyes, a long face, a fresh complexion slightly stout and no distinguishing marks he was about 25. The boat took 125 days to get to Australia and half were convicts and the other half passengers. 2 people died, the first one was a convict who died almost immediately. On arrival (4 years after being sentenced mind you) he was given a "ticket of leave" a month later which meant he was virtually free (like someone on probation) and could work. He worked in Western Australia and was given his freedom after 8 full years (not today's idea of an 8 year term). I then tried other URL and I did find the Aus-convict site and I have joined this but thank you for telling me as I had no idea where to look for anything. I should have been doing some housework and I have spent hours on this. I am not sure why or if he went to Australia for the 4 year sentence, (I doubt it) he was given previously. He was sentenced because of his bad record really not entirely for what he did which was only to steal 4 fish to eat. Previously as a 15 year old he had stolen clothing to sell and for housebreaking he got the first 4 years after having 3 spells in Wakefield Prison as a 13 year old for stealing a cover off a market stall, then taking 1s from an 8 year old and for stealing 3 grates. I now need to discover if he stayed - he certainly didn't have anything to go back to England for. It has been quite an exciting trip. His relationship is distant enough for us to choose if we want to claim him or disown him. I think we will claim him. It is amazing how much information is out there if we know where to look. Who knows what people will learn about us in the future. Jean ----- Original Message ----- From: "The Quineys" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 6:15 PM Subject: Re: [WRY] Australian convict records etc. > You might consider joining > http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/intl/AUS/AUS-CONVICTS.html > for "the convicts that were transported to Australia." > > Heather > > jean and terry wrote: >> <snip> >> >> ... so can anyone suggest where I start looking for Austrlian records. I >> haven't needed to >> before now. We arrived here quite legally but I do live in the outback >> without access to Records in the Family History Societies or Library in >> the City.. >> >> Jean in S. Australia. >> >> >> > > > > > Some useful websites - > FREECEN - http://www.freecen.org.uk/ > FREEBMD - http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ > Want to know where a place in Yorkshire is - Try Genuki > http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message