CONVICT MARRIAGES - TROVE TUESDAY 20TH FEB. 2018

CONVICT MARRIAGES 

Convict marriages were often a point of discussion among not only the FREE settlers, but also in the various newspapers of the day, as well as the convicts themselves. 

They were seen by many as an ideal way to populate the colony, while having a settling effect on many of the restless convicts. With often long sentences, there didn't seem any likelihood for most to be able to return to their homeland... even if somehow they did manage to save the fare. It wasn't unknown for some who were married, to declare themselves single and then take a new partner. For those who had left a troubled marriage behind, it was a chance to start again. Some families did follow their loved ones, but that was mostly in the later years of transportation. 

Image courtesy of Wikipedia  Drawing of convicts in New Holland, 1793

This is just one editorial, this time in the Monitor... no name attached to the comments. It seems as if the well known Female Factory, Parramatta, was thought to be a good place to find a wife. No doubt, many of the women were only too pleased to be free of the place and were hopeful that they would be among those who had a far better life.

Monitor (Sydney, NSW : 1826 - 1828), Friday 22 December 1826, page 7
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/31758064
Click to enlarge...

 In the previous year, in the Australian, there was a list of marriages of Prisoners.

Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 - 1848), Thursday 21 April 1825, page 3
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37071356 

Marriages marked with red line...

Other items found in TROVE were as follows..from the  Pictures, photos,objects 

From Tasmania.. Date of issue was 24/08/1847..you can read more here

Then from TROVE Books...


If you are fortunate enough to be near the Newcastle Regional Library, you can look at the microfilm of the Convict records returns of births, deaths and marriages.. 

The Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1856, NSW are available to all on Ancestry.com . just sign in with a guest account or your subscribed account and you will find various sections including 'Convict Permission to Marry'...

 This is just one example... Ann Gordon seeking permission to marry Edward Wilkinson, convict per "Archduke Charles"  page 33... can be enlarged...

Reproduction permitted. 

I hope this helps you to find out even more about your Australian Royalty... we are fortunate to have so much at our fingertips, all for FREE.