Offenders, paupers and pioneers
Convict women and their families in pre-Separation Queensland

QUEENSLAND STATE ARCHIVES (QSA)

Item ID ITM2917, Register of male and female prisoners admitted – HM Gaol, Brisbane, 3 January 1850 to 3 February 1864.

Item ID ITM9520, Register of personal details relating to females admitted to Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, c. 1 October 1859 to 28 June 1906.

Item ID ITM869682, Book of trials held at Moreton Bay, c. 1 July 1835 to 28 February 1842.

Item ID ITM869689, Chronological register of convicts at Moreton Bay, c. 14 September 1824 to 15 November 1839.

NEW SOUTH WALES STATE ARCHIVES (NSWSA)

NRS 905, Returns of Applications for the Publication of Banns, 1828-1841.

NRS 983, Copies of letters to Moreton Bay, 27 August 1824 to 5 August 1853.

NRS 1156, Indents to Convict Vessels from Ireland, 1 January 1822 to 31 December 1840.

NRS 1272, 1828 Census: Alphabetical Return, 1 November 1828 to 31 December 1829.

NRS 1273, 1828 Census: Householders’ Returns, 1 November 1828 to 31 December 1829.

NRS 12188, Bound Manuscript Indents, 26 January 1788 to 31 December 1842.

NRS 12189, Annotated and Non-Annotated Printed Indents, 1 January 1831 to 31 December 1842.

NRS 12202, Ticket of Leave Butts, 31 March 1827 to 13 December 1875.

NRS 12210, Butts of Certificates of Freedom, 1 January 1827-31 December 1867.

NRS 12212, Registers of Convicts’ Applications to Marry, 20 December 1825 to 26 February 1851.

Note: Digitised copies of NSWSA records were accessed via Ancestry.com.au

TASMANIAN ARCHIVES AND HERITAGE OFFICE (TAHO)

CON15, Indents of Female Convicts, 9 May 1831 to 24 February 1853.

CON19, Description Lists of Female Convicts, 1 October 1828 to 31 December 1853.

CON41, Conduct Registers of Female Convicts Arriving in the Period of the Probation System, 1 January 1844 to 31 December 1853.

CON52, Registers of Applications for Permission to Marry, 1 January 1834 to 31 December 1858.

RGD33/1/4, Register of Births in Hobart, 1 January 1851 to 23 August 1853.

RGD33/1/23, Register of Births in Launceston, 1 January 1838 to 31 December 1850.

RGD33/1/50, Register of Births in Launceston and County Districts, 1 January 1872 to 31 December 1872.

RGD35/1/4, Register of Deaths in Hobart, 19 May 1853 to 19 June 1855.

RGD35/1/16, Register of Deaths in Launceston, 7 November 1838 to 30 December 1850.

RGD37/1/4, Register of Marriages, 1 January 1844 to 31 December 1846.

RGD37/1/9, Register of Marriages, 1 January 1850 to 31 December 1850.

Note: Digitised copies of TAHO records were accessed via the freely-accessible Tasmanian Names Index on the Libraries Tasmania website (see below).

OTHER PRIMARY SOURCES

State Library of Queensland, Correspondence of the Colonial Secretary: Letters received relating to Moreton Bay and Queensland 1822-1860, A2 Series, Reels A2.1-A2.43 [microfilm] and online indexes [downloadable PDF documents].

Queensland, New South Wales and Australian newspapers, via Trove (see below).

New South Wales Government Gazette (1832-1900), via Trove (see below).

WEBSITES, DATABASES, INDEXES AND FINDING AIDS

Ancestry, https://www.ancestry.com.au/

Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/

Billion Graves, https://billiongraves.com

Brisbane City Council Cemeteries Search, Brisbane City Council, https://graves.brisbane.qld.gov.au

Convict Queenslanders, State Library of Queensland (SLQ), https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/research-collections/family-history/convict-queenslanders

Convict Records, https://convictrecords.com.au/

The Digital Panopticon: Tracing London Convicts in Britain and Australia, 1780-1925, https://www.digitalpanopticon.org

Female Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land Database, Female Convicts Research Centre, n.d., https://femaleconvicts.org.au/database/database-research

Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com

Findmypast, https://www.findmypast.com.au

Finnane, Mark, Kaladelfos, Andy, Piper, Alana, Smaal, Yorick, Blewer, Robyn, Durnian, Lisa et al., The Prosecution Project Database, Version 1, 17 July 2016, https://prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au/

Founders and Survivors, https://foundersandsurvivors.com

Hitchcock, Tim, Shoemaker, Robert, Emsley, Clive, Howard, Sharon and McLaughlin, Jamie, et al., The Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 1674-1913, Version 8.0, March 2018, https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

Libraries Tasmania, Tasmanian Names Index, https://linctas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/

National Library of Australia, Newspapers & Gazettes (advanced search page), Trove, Version 9.0, https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/advanced/category/newspapers

New South Wales Registry of Birth, Deaths and Marriages, Births, deaths and marriages search, https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search

New South Wales State Archives, ‘Convicts’ (online indexes), https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/convicts/indexes

Queensland Family History Society (QFHS), Queensland Early Pioneers Indexes 1824-1859 (Version 1.01 with QFHSdatasearch – 1.5), CD-ROM, QFHS, Indooroopilly, Qld, 2004. (Searchable online with a Findmypast subscription.)

Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Family history research service, https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/

Queensland State Archives, Search the records, ‘Indexes’ (online indexes to to persons mentioned in QSA records, including the ‘Convicts and early settlers’ index), https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/heritage/archives/search-the-records

Willett, Jen, Free Settler or Felon, https://www.jenwilletts.com/

SECONDARY SOURCES

Bimrose, Jan, ‘Joseph and Jane Ray’, unpublished manuscript, February 2011, last updated 13 May 2011.

Cowley, Trudy and Snowden, Dianne,  Patchwork Prisoners: The Rajah Quilt and the Women Who Made It, Hobart, Research Tasmania, 2013.

Evans, Raymond, ‘Charitable institutions of the Queensland government to 1919’, published M.A. thesis, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld, 1970, https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:203862.

Goodall, Joseph B.,  ‘Whom nobody owns: The Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, an institutional biography 1866-1946’, published Ph.D. thesis, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld, 1992, https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:190037.

Harrison, Jennifer, Shackled: Female Convicts at Moreton Bay 1826-1839, Melbourne, Anchor Books, 2016.

Harrison, Jennifer, ‘Rigby, Hannah (1794-1853)’Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2005, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rigby-hannah-13171.

Lance, Barry and Lorraine, ‘The life of Jane Appleyard 1816-1876’, unpublished manuscript, 25 September 2017.

O’Keeffe, Mamie, Convicts at Moreton Bay, 1824-1859, Brisbane, Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 2001.

Richardson, Jan, ‘Invisible stories: The presence of female convicts in Queensland following the closure of the Moreton Bay penal settlement in 1842’, History in the Making, Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter-Spring 2013, pp. 86-108.

Taylor, Louise Westall, ‘Recovering lives: 15 convicts in New South Wales’, published Ph.D. thesis, Australian National University, 2015, http://hdl.handle.net/1885/110682.