Letters from Van Dieman's Land

Above: a page showing Benjamin Wait listed as a convict, with a life sentence, and noting his ship and place of origin (Upper Canada) from  Tasmanian Colonial Convict, Passenger and Land Records. Various collections (30 series). Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, Hobart, Tasmania as available online at ancestry.com.


I read with interest the post on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog about the Patriot War of 1837 (a futile attempt on the part of Americans to "help" settled British-Canadians revolt against the British government) and about those New York rebels who were captured by the British and sent to Australia--specifically Tasmania, at that time called Van Dieman's Land. Many of those northern New Yorkers were pardoned and made it back to their home country, while a few remained in Australia. Near the top of the list displayed at the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog of those men transported to Van Dieman's Land aboard the ship the Marquis of Hastings is the name Benjamin Wait.


For those interested in the story of one man who remained in Australia (Ira Polley), see my blog post titled  Australian Descendants of Jefferson County, New York settlers.

I happen to have (handed down to me over the ages) the book written by Benjamin Wait during his imprisonment. The book includes the letters and exhaustive efforts of his wife (including travel abroad) to get him released. It is a wonderful small brown book published in 1843 and it tells firsthand a fascinating story.

Wait, with a few other convicts escaped and returned to New York.



Fortunately for all who might be interested in the story, you won't have to ask me to borrow the book--a scanned version of the text can be found at archive.org. See the text at archive.org.

What speed bumps (pun intended--see photo) can you encounter in your own language as you rush through research?

We all take it for granted that we speak our own language and perhaps one or two or a half or so more. We can get along in our own country and maybe a few others. That works.

But we may get complacent and forget that research demands that we remain flexible about language usage in the context of time and place, because it is indeed dynamic, often culture-oriented, and ever-changing.
Even for those working in English only--
What are the words you need to know to research the British of 1860? The Welsh or Australians of 1890? If you read the American census records, do you know what a cordwainer is?

And what about the Canadians of 2015?

A "sleeping policeman" is a speed bump.

Your British ancestors (or their relatives) in the Old Bailey (British Court)

You've heard of The Old Bailey. There is a website: The proceedings of Old Bailey: London's Central Criminal Court, 1674-1913. Chances are, if you have an ancestral name that might have flitted through London during those years you may have a distant relative whose case was tried in the Old Bailey. It may not be an ancestor you can easily identify, but just seeing that that last name with which you are so familiar is there in the prison can be oh so fun. The transcripts of the cases are there, easy to find and read, and all very entertaining.

Just for example, if you put in the surname Ninnes you find the abstract of the record for William Ninnes, including his crime (stealing 12 postage stamps from his master) and his punishment (18 months in prison). An easily clickable graphic takes you to a scan of the original record from the 1800's.


The website is very easy to use and to search: Old Bailey of London. Enjoy!

Spanish California genealogy research

For families of Spanish-American heritage who may have resided in or near the missions up to 1850, I recommend the following: Mission records as gleaned and annotated by the Huntington Early California Population Project (see: http://www.huntington.org/information/ecppmain.htm, and as gleaned and annotated by Dorothy Mutnick in her books on the families of the missions. The Early California Population Project records are accessible online, and the database has scans for many of its records, which allows the researcher to see the words as written by the scribe at the time. These records go back to the late 1700s. The database has even made connections between records for individuals, so that a marriage record may be linked to a death record for the same person. Most of the information written in Spanish has been translated or transcribed so that it is easy to understand the content. A third database which can be helpful is Los Californianos (http://www.loscalifornianos.org/), a website devoted to the history and genealogy of the early hispanic settlers of Alta California. Using all three, you can build a family history for the early Spanish-Californian residents of California.