"Down Under" - the Irish in Australia and New Zealand
Kilkenny Courthouse and County Jail. Photo by Wiggy
Transported Irish Convicts
Once Great Britain and Ireland could no longer dispose of their undesirables by shipping them across the Atlantic after their 1-0 defeat in the American War of Independence, the authorities hit upon the new found lands of Australia as a suitably out of the way location instead. Even those convicted of what seem today to be relatively minor crimes were sentenced to several years of transportation, at the end of which there was virtually no possibility of returning to Ireland. Instead they became the new settlers and raised new families, for whom a convict ancestry was once something to be ashamed of but now is rather a badge of honour.
Their story may start with earlier stays at their Majesties pleasure found in the Irish Prison registers, 1790-1924 (FMP=£). More salacious crimes might also have been reported in the Irish Newspapers along with their sentence of transportation.
The National Archives of Ireland has a database of Penal Transportation Records: Ireland to Australia, 1788-1868, which appears to consist of transcripts of official records from several different collections they hold on the subject. It's a bit of strange database "backwater" on the NAI site as the search screen page is very old-fashioned and clunky, as are the results returned. However, there is some basic descriptive information returned in the results as well as a document reference should you want to consult the original. There is also quite a long research article entitled "Sources in the National Archives for research into the transportation of Irish convicts to Australia (1791-1853)" which should give you lots of context for the records.
FindMyPast has several promising record sets that are listed when you search with the keyword "convict" in their Australian and New Zealand collections. They are generally listed by state and do include some more general criminal records for Australia, but there looks to be plenty of interesting sources in which to hunt for whatever might have happened to your transported Irish once they reached their destination.
Ancestry also has quite a large collection of different types of records catalogued under their Australian Convict Collection (Anc=£). Check out the individual record sets on the long list to learn more about their provenance.
Once Great Britain and Ireland could no longer dispose of their undesirables by shipping them across the Atlantic after their 1-0 defeat in the American War of Independence, the authorities hit upon the new found lands of Australia as a suitably out of the way location instead. Even those convicted of what seem today to be relatively minor crimes were sentenced to several years of transportation, at the end of which there was virtually no possibility of returning to Ireland. Instead they became the new settlers and raised new families, for whom a convict ancestry was once something to be ashamed of but now is rather a badge of honour.
Their story may start with earlier stays at their Majesties pleasure found in the Irish Prison registers, 1790-1924 (FMP=£). More salacious crimes might also have been reported in the Irish Newspapers along with their sentence of transportation.
The National Archives of Ireland has a database of Penal Transportation Records: Ireland to Australia, 1788-1868, which appears to consist of transcripts of official records from several different collections they hold on the subject. It's a bit of strange database "backwater" on the NAI site as the search screen page is very old-fashioned and clunky, as are the results returned. However, there is some basic descriptive information returned in the results as well as a document reference should you want to consult the original. There is also quite a long research article entitled "Sources in the National Archives for research into the transportation of Irish convicts to Australia (1791-1853)" which should give you lots of context for the records.
FindMyPast has several promising record sets that are listed when you search with the keyword "convict" in their Australian and New Zealand collections. They are generally listed by state and do include some more general criminal records for Australia, but there looks to be plenty of interesting sources in which to hunt for whatever might have happened to your transported Irish once they reached their destination.
Ancestry also has quite a large collection of different types of records catalogued under their Australian Convict Collection (Anc=£). Check out the individual record sets on the long list to learn more about their provenance.
Australian Immigration Records
Australia has also always been a favourite destination for Irish emigrants, especially in the middle decades of the 19th century when Australia offered an "Immigrants Bounty" to skilled craftsmen. This largely amounted to a paid passage to the colony and of course the opportunity to make a new more prosperous life. Even with the cessation of the bounty scheme in 1842, Irish emigrants still saw Australia as a good place to move to, especially if previous family members had established themselves there. Ancestry has various records collections that document what they called assisted and unassisted passages - these are listed by state under Australia - Immigration and Emigration (Anc=£) in their Card Catalogue.
Australia has also always been a favourite destination for Irish emigrants, especially in the middle decades of the 19th century when Australia offered an "Immigrants Bounty" to skilled craftsmen. This largely amounted to a paid passage to the colony and of course the opportunity to make a new more prosperous life. Even with the cessation of the bounty scheme in 1842, Irish emigrants still saw Australia as a good place to move to, especially if previous family members had established themselves there. Ancestry has various records collections that document what they called assisted and unassisted passages - these are listed by state under Australia - Immigration and Emigration (Anc=£) in their Card Catalogue.
Click on image to enlarge
Australian Death & Probate Indexes
Australia was, and still is, a federation of states, each with their own ways of recording life events - see this very useful comparison website from Graham Jaunay telling you what to expect to see on the different certificates (follow links on his page to see what sub-set of this information you can expect to see and search on in any indexes.) Indeed, I previously blogged on my sister website, Kindred Ancestry, that if your relative died in New South Wales and you order the actual certificate, then treasure awaits! Several of the states record parents names on death records and these have even been included in some of the indexes available on commercial sites, so try querying by family surname and parents first names to find children who may have emigrated. As usual though, consider abbreviations and alternative spellings - the person recording the death might not have been a family member but seemed to remember that Wally's mum might have been called Ellen instead of the Eleanor you actually seek.
I can't profess to an exhaustive knowledge of probate jurisdictions in Australia, but state level Supreme Courts appear to be where wills were proved and it also looks like historic records were then lodged with the state archives, so check their respective on-line catalogues to see if they host indexes. It can be relatively expensive to order wills from Australia but you never know what you might learn. One distant cousin of mine expired on an extended trip home to Ireland so the settling of his estate in New South Wales resulted in an extensive international correspondence to establish that, yes, he had in fact died and that, yes, he was a soap boiler in the winter and a lemonade maker in the summer! Not only that but the probate package also contained copies of family letters detailing much salacious marriage strife and fatalistic despair on the part of the soon to be deceased as he made his way back to his homeland (via San Francisco) for what turned out the be the last time! I can't promise you might find such a rich a seam of family lore if you take the plunge and order Australian probate records, but you never know.
Australia was, and still is, a federation of states, each with their own ways of recording life events - see this very useful comparison website from Graham Jaunay telling you what to expect to see on the different certificates (follow links on his page to see what sub-set of this information you can expect to see and search on in any indexes.) Indeed, I previously blogged on my sister website, Kindred Ancestry, that if your relative died in New South Wales and you order the actual certificate, then treasure awaits! Several of the states record parents names on death records and these have even been included in some of the indexes available on commercial sites, so try querying by family surname and parents first names to find children who may have emigrated. As usual though, consider abbreviations and alternative spellings - the person recording the death might not have been a family member but seemed to remember that Wally's mum might have been called Ellen instead of the Eleanor you actually seek.
I can't profess to an exhaustive knowledge of probate jurisdictions in Australia, but state level Supreme Courts appear to be where wills were proved and it also looks like historic records were then lodged with the state archives, so check their respective on-line catalogues to see if they host indexes. It can be relatively expensive to order wills from Australia but you never know what you might learn. One distant cousin of mine expired on an extended trip home to Ireland so the settling of his estate in New South Wales resulted in an extensive international correspondence to establish that, yes, he had in fact died and that, yes, he was a soap boiler in the winter and a lemonade maker in the summer! Not only that but the probate package also contained copies of family letters detailing much salacious marriage strife and fatalistic despair on the part of the soon to be deceased as he made his way back to his homeland (via San Francisco) for what turned out the be the last time! I can't promise you might find such a rich a seam of family lore if you take the plunge and order Australian probate records, but you never know.
New Zealand Births, Marriages and Deaths Indexes
You will find these indexes on the New Zealand Government's Historical Records website, which is a fairly rudimentary affair, being clunky to search and stingy with the information returned. That's because it's primary purpose is to act as a shopping cart for you to order various versions of the full records. At a minimum of NZL$25 a pop and with shed loads of New Zealand relatives, I'm afraid that I haven't been able to go down that expensive route and cannot advise you on what to expect. However, I have managed to make the most of what you can find out by wrangling the indexes.
Here are my tips;
You will find these indexes on the New Zealand Government's Historical Records website, which is a fairly rudimentary affair, being clunky to search and stingy with the information returned. That's because it's primary purpose is to act as a shopping cart for you to order various versions of the full records. At a minimum of NZL$25 a pop and with shed loads of New Zealand relatives, I'm afraid that I haven't been able to go down that expensive route and cannot advise you on what to expect. However, I have managed to make the most of what you can find out by wrangling the indexes.
Here are my tips;
- Check out the closure periods carefully on the front page - you won't be able to search for any births under 100 years old for example.
- Take a look at the Search Results page BEFORE you start searching so that you can see what you are likely to learn and also understand how best to design your search criteria for the various fields. Less is definitely more on this website!
- You will always need to put in a starting date. This Timeline page gives you an idea of the key events relating to BMD legislation in New Zealand's history.
- Be prepared to do some fairly open searches and page through the results as this is often how you might spot other records of interest. Birth records are a case in point here as parents names may be missing in part or exhibit different spellings for groups of siblings.
- The registration number for any record begins with the year of registration, so click on the column header to sort them into ascending order.
Archives New Zealand
For a much broader view of what records were created and have survived for New Zealand, take a wander around the Archives New Zealand website. In particular they have a library of Research Guides organised by topic. For example, I found a Family History Reference Guide produced by the Christchurch Regional Office that was stuffed with links, contact advice and good practical advice on accessing records e.g. New Zealand Probate Records which are available on FamilySearch.
For most of us, New Zealand is a bit of a hike, so be sure to check out what they have digitised and made available online through their Archway portal. The search interface is very heavily designed around local government structures which does not initially look very inviting but have a go and see what you turn up.
For a much broader view of what records were created and have survived for New Zealand, take a wander around the Archives New Zealand website. In particular they have a library of Research Guides organised by topic. For example, I found a Family History Reference Guide produced by the Christchurch Regional Office that was stuffed with links, contact advice and good practical advice on accessing records e.g. New Zealand Probate Records which are available on FamilySearch.
For most of us, New Zealand is a bit of a hike, so be sure to check out what they have digitised and made available online through their Archway portal. The search interface is very heavily designed around local government structures which does not initially look very inviting but have a go and see what you turn up.
The Press, NZ, 1901. Click to enlarge
Read all about it! Australian and New Zealand Newspapers
Some of my favourite go-to resources are always local newspapers and for Australia you will find their Trove Digitised Newspapers resource is very extensive and wonderfully FREE. The system does rely on OCR to find matches so sometimes the results can be a bit wayward but do persevere and you are likely to find lots of BMD announcements. You may also find relatives mentioned in news articles too, especially legal proceedings - nothing quite beats this mention of my distant cousin Thomas Pierce Hopkins suing his doctor for setting fire to him as a practical joke!
New Zealand newspapers are also free to search via their Papers Past website. Again, their system relies on OCR to find matches, but with patience you may find mention of your Irish emigrants.
This obituary from 1901 is crammed with great genealogical details, including their previous home in Ireland (don't rely on spelling if you search by Irish place names though!) Even the ship they sailed on is mentioned, which is something long-established settler families liked to include in notices like these.
New Zealand historically also attracted a high proportion of Scottish settlers in the early years, so if an Irish relative had married into a Scottish family and then disappeared from the censuses, try looking for them here too. Try New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973 on FamilySearch to see when they might have arrived.
Some of my favourite go-to resources are always local newspapers and for Australia you will find their Trove Digitised Newspapers resource is very extensive and wonderfully FREE. The system does rely on OCR to find matches so sometimes the results can be a bit wayward but do persevere and you are likely to find lots of BMD announcements. You may also find relatives mentioned in news articles too, especially legal proceedings - nothing quite beats this mention of my distant cousin Thomas Pierce Hopkins suing his doctor for setting fire to him as a practical joke!
New Zealand newspapers are also free to search via their Papers Past website. Again, their system relies on OCR to find matches, but with patience you may find mention of your Irish emigrants.
This obituary from 1901 is crammed with great genealogical details, including their previous home in Ireland (don't rely on spelling if you search by Irish place names though!) Even the ship they sailed on is mentioned, which is something long-established settler families liked to include in notices like these.
New Zealand historically also attracted a high proportion of Scottish settlers in the early years, so if an Irish relative had married into a Scottish family and then disappeared from the censuses, try looking for them here too. Try New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973 on FamilySearch to see when they might have arrived.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2022
