Carmel's Corner

Monday, 12 April 2021

Journals and Jottings - AJCP

Individual Journals

Within many of the AJCP collections there are journals written by individuals on the voyages and experiences in the new country. Try the words diary, notebook or journal with a surname to see if one of your ancestors has his/her words recorded for posterity.

Journals written by ships' captains and surgeon superintendents

The Finding Aid to the India Office Library outlines the how and why the East India Company came to supply ships for the transportation of convicts. An excerpt:

After about 1795, a growing number of East Indiamen were charted to bring convicts, free settlers, provisions and other goods to New South Wales (and occasionally Tasmania). After visiting Port Jackson, the ships invariably sailed to China or India where they loaded tea, textiles and other goods before returning to Britain.

The ships' journals, logs and related records available here date from 22 July 1759 - 6 June 1827 and include:

Coromandel,
Royal Admiral,
Warren Hastings,
Ganges,
Sovereign,
Bellona,
Prince of Wales,
Young William,
Resolution,
Warwick,
Ceres,
Minerva,
Hercules,
Canada,
Nile,
Minorca,
Friendship,
Duff,
Barwell,
Atlas I,
Atlas II,
Marquis of Wellington,
Henry Porcher,
Guilford,
England,
Alexander,
Providence,
William Pitt,
Ocean,
General Graham,
Mary,
Rolla,
Perseus
Indefatigable.

These journals and logs not only record the day to day weather conditions but also detail the personnel aboard. In this case the date of deaths of several crew members are recorded next to their names.

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2704155623/view
Resolution: Journal, Captain Thomas Poynting

If you had a maritime ancestor or an emigrant you have been unable to find, perhaps they are listed on one of those ships.

Surgeon Superintendent journals

Veering away from the India Office Library but relevant to journal entries are the Admiralty Transport Department's Surgeon superintendents' journals of convict ships, 1858 - 1867

These deal more with the day to day interactions and infractions aboard. The rules and regulations together with daily routines of prisoners are detailed.

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1628694269/view
Aboard the Corona in 1866
Written by W. Crawford R.N. (Surgeon Superintendent)

They are likely to include the ports at which the convicts were embarked, names of convicts who either died or escaped during voyage as well as the numbers on each ship, and the supplies used each day.

Some Surgeon Superintendents provided extensive details while others limited themselves to the minimum of reporting needed. These journals are in the Ministry of Transport records.

Lord Raglan, 6 February 1858 - 8 June 1858
Lincelles, 7 September 1860 - 30 January 1861
Norwood, 4 February 1862 - 14 June 1862
Merchantman, 10 October 1862 - 24 February 1863
Clyde, 23 February 1863 - 2 June 1863
Clara, 11 January 1864 - 16 April 1864
Merchantman, 11 June 1864 - 30 September 1864
Racehorse, 26 April 1865 - 23 August 1865
Vimeira, 16 September 1865 - 6 January 1866
Corona, 4 September 1866 - 26 December 1866
Norwood, 11 March 1867 - 29 July 1867

Previous posts in this series

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info

Saturday, 10 April 2021

Irish Records - AJCP

It is the individuals of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland who interest us as genealogists. Here are just some of the major Irish collections in the AJCP where details of convicts and free settlers alike can be found.

The National Archives of Ireland

Transportation Registers, 1836 - 1857

Each register is divided into male and female convicts, and each section is subdivided by county. The registers give details of each convict, including age, crime and sentence. While the Ireland-Australia Transportation database can be searched on the National Archives of Ireland site and several Convict indexes are available through NSW State Archives, if one has the year and county the person can be found in these registers.

A second series covers Prisoners' Petitions and Cases, 1788 - 1836, there are also some Fenian photographs from 1866.

Another series has Free Settlers' Papers, 1828 - 1852

Male convicts who served a minimum of four years of their sentence were entitled to request a free passage for a dependent wife and family to join them in the colony. The series include some lists of convicts who requested this privilege, giving details of date of transportation, name of ship, and name and address of wife. There are also some letters written by convicts to their wives.

These comprehensive records about convicts are now fully digitised.

The National Library of Ireland

Browse the huge variety in this collection via the Finding Aid - Guide

Multiple finds within these collections.

Rules and regulations for steerage passengers in 1838,

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1804223304/view

How did they travel? A plan of accommodation aboard the Roxburgh is followed by

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1804227612/view

The photos below are included in the Papers of General Sir Thomas Larcom, - Letters, memoranda and pamphlets relating to young Irelanders and Fenianism 1861 -1867. Browse the collection then choose set 301- 320 to view the images.

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-903490680
Papers of General Sir Thomas Larcom, 1859 - 1871

Names on photos include:

Duffy, Stephens, Lynam, O'Mahony, O'Keefe, Byrne, Scholfeld, Haltigan, McManus, Moore, O'Leary, O'Regan, O'Connor, Curry, Molony, Bracken, McGillivery, Cook or McCook, Weadick, Power, Doherty, Brophy, Mulcahy, Hayes, Casey, O'Connor, Mulcahy and O'Donovan.

The Royal Irish Academy

Records here contain papers relating to colonial administration in Western Australia 1828-49. One set of interest are those relating to the Roman Catholic mission in Western Australia; the education of Catholic children; and official attitudes towards the Sisters of Mercy.

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

This collection contains many, many letters of emigrants to their families. Search a family name to determine whether your ancestors wrote home about their voyage or living conditions.

Found amongst this collection

Photograph of Thomas Whitson, Isabella Whitson (nee Grant), their children and parents
Thomas Whitson (1847-1922) married Isabella Grant at Dunedin in 1876. She had emigrated to New Zealand with her parents in 1870.
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2741995030/view

All Hallows College Dublin

The largest set of records here refer to:

Correspondence dealing with overseas missions, concluding with batches of letters arranged chronologically in groups of twelve with a summary note at the beginning of each group. These summary notes give the name of each correspondent, the date of the letter and its subject. The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters from bishops and priests addressed to the College presidents, and records of the ideas as well as the activities of Irish priests in Australia and New Zealand.

These are just some of the significant Irish collections available through the AJCP.

Previous posts in this series

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info

Friday, 9 April 2021

Hulks and the Home Office - AJCP

Prison Hulks

Floating decommissioned ships were used extensively in the late 18th century to relieve the pressure on British prisons. These were not the ships used to transport the prisoners across the seas but were indeed unseaworthy floating prisons. They were often used to house prisoners prior to transportation to the penal colonies.

The AJCP has extensive records about these hulks housed in a great variety of Departmental files as well as in County records. It may well be that your ancestor was imprisoned on one of these hulks whether or not he/she was eventually transported.

Home Office records include convict prisons and registers of prisoners in hulks on Chatham, Woolwich, Devonport, Portsmouth, as well as transportation lists, number of convicts by year and colonies to which they were sent.

There is a great deal of general correspondence such as these letters of request from prisoners aboard the hulks. The appalling conditions aboard made transportation appear to be a desirable alternative.

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-728097330

Edward Moseley states:

I am a young man of twenty two years of age, by trade a bricklayer...............

he goes on to relate his conviction to transportation for stealing a Game cock and rather than asking for pardon petitions

to be taken out of this floating hell, and sent in the next ship to Botany Bay. I am lame from a fall but stout and robust, and every day go thro' laborious work. I have three times had the Gaol fever which is another reason for my importunity.

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-728097396/view

Convict Prisons

The huge collection relating to the hulks is inside the Prison Department and Inspectorate Fonds of Home Office files.

Series HO 8. Convict Prisons, 1824 - 1869
Quarterly list of prisoners in British prisons and hulks giving name and details of age, offence, and convictions, surgeons' reports, and behaviour.