'Today people regard convict ancestry as a badge of honour'

[emad]

The Independent
By Arifa Akbar
28 December 2004


An advert placed in an Australian genealogy magazine and months of painstaking research led Alan and Heather Hall to discover an ancestor transported to Australia over a century ago.

Mr Hall's great-great-great grandfather, Thomas Collins, was sentenced to seven years transportation at the Old Bailey in 1839. He was found guilty of stealing two loaves of bread and a sack of flour at the age of 16. He was freed in 1846 and spent most of his life owning hotels in Sydney.

"I think it was natural curiosity that led us to tracing our family and it was quite something to find convict ancestry. It has been a hobby of ours for some years, but my parents were just not interested. I have wondered if they actually knew," said Mr Hall, 63, who lives near Canberra in New South Wales.

He said "convict ancestry" no longer carried the stigma that it may have done a few generations ago.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/story.jsp?story=596480

[REP]

1. That's Been True for At Least 50 Years in Australia

It may be new to Mr Hall, but the snob classes have long cherished their convict ancestors down under.

[RUDUing2]

2. better convicts then fanatics right?

I read a quote once (cant remember who said it or where I saw it)

"australians are the lucky ones. Americans are descended from the puritans and still are fighting relgious fanaticism, whereas aussie's are descended from convicts and prostitutes and just want everyone to have a good time."

[radwriter0555]

3. Most of america was also populated with convicts and poor house

rejects.

The fantasy that all our early settlers were brave adventurers is QUITE the revision, since england was in the habit of emptying her gaols here as well as Australia.

[Bridget Burke]

6. One result of the American Revolution: Australia became a penal colony.

Previously, criminals had been sent to North America--mostly the South. However, "crimes" in those days more often consisted in crimes against property--by the starving. There was also a political element; many of the transportees were Irish or Scottish. When the American Colonies were no longer available, Australia became the new destination.

"The Fatal Shore" by Robert Hughes is an excellent accounting of the cruel Penal System.

Interesting links here; many of these pages offer a "search" feature. Do you have distant cousins in Australia?

www.coraweb.com.au/convict.htm

[Wilber_Stool]

4. If your looking for

a great(great) book on Australia, pick up "In a Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson. I liked it so much I've got it on mp3. Australia is a fascinating place. True fact: There are more thing there that will kill you than any other place on earth. Of the ten most poisonous snakes, all ten are in Australia.
True fact number two: The only reason they stopped sending criminals there was the discovery of gold in the 1840s. Then, everybody wanted to go there.

[emad]

5. Australians embrace their criminal past, with a little help from the Old B

Australians embrace their criminal past, with a little help from the Old Bailey
By Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent
28 December 2004


Not so long ago Australia's middle classes were deeply ashamed of their criminal past. Now Sydney dinner party conversations are dominated by boasts of convict ancestry as doctors, lawyers and politicians stake their claim to belonging to one of the "first families" of Australia. And from today, descendants of British criminals sentenced to servitude in the New World will be able to authenticate such claims through an online scheme to release documents of thousands of trials held at the Old Bailey.

Researchers working on the new website say they have been bombarded with requests from Australians desperate to find a relative convicted at Britain's most famous criminal court.

Tim Hitchcock, the Old Bailey website project director, said: "In Australia these records form the equivalent of an aristocratic pedigree. To be descended from someone tried and convicted at the Old Bailey is to be able to claim to be from one of Australia's first families."

Between 1780 and 1834, 21,000 people were sent to Australia after being sentenced at the Old Bailey. Alongside thousands more convicted in the provincial courts, they formed the bulk of the new population.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=596457