Sunday, January 26, 2014

Claim a Convict

It has been a traumatic month for family history researchers in New South Wales, and Australia in general. Especially those of us who proudly boast a convict or two, in their ancestry. One of our grass-roots researchers, Lesley Uebel, died after a short, traumatic illness. Lesley moderated a Roots-Web page of Port Jackson convict researchers, and created and administered the "Claim a Convict" site. Now a group of other researchers, who were particularly close to Lesley, have agreed to moderate both sites. Indeed, the "Claim a Convict" site has been totally rewritten, with a SQL data-base under-pinning its data.

Once my membership has been moderated, I will be in-like-flynn to claim:
Joseph Puckeridge - 1801 - Earl Cornwallis
Thomas Hughes - 1802- Perseus
Susan Smith - 1814 - Wanstead
William Chapman - 1834 - Susan
Charlotte Webster - 1838 - John Renwick
The aim is to put researchers in touch with each other to share their knowledge. There is no limit on how many researchers can "claim" any individual convict.

4 comments:

diane b said...

Sounds like a full time hobby.

Julie said...

It is quite time-consuming, Diane. But as I get more and more restricted in my movements, it is just the sort of hobby that suits. Which is why I am trying to get all the on-the-ground research done now, what with visiting cemeteries and all.

Joan Elizabeth said...

Golly 5 of em. I can claim one and suspect there may be another lurking down the line.

Doing the research is enormous fun and I am sure much easier in the Internet age. When I did most of mine I had to spend hours at the Mormons.

Julie said...

Last night, Joan, I went direct to the Old Bailey records for a trial of an ancestor on 5th September 1833.