Founders & Survivors: Tasmanian life courses in historical context

Links to website

Introduction

Founders & Survivors is a partnership between historians, genealogists, demographers and population health researchers. It seeks to record and study the founding population of 73,000 men, women and children who were transported to Tasmania. Many survived their convict experience and went on to help build a new society.

Shortname

FAS

IDS compatible

Period

1803 - 1930

Territory

Australian colonies and states, United Kingdom and Ireland

Category

Longitudinal

Contact information

Organisation

School of Historical Studies, University of Tasmania

Web Address

http://www.foundersandsurvivors.org/

Location

Hobart, Australia

Postal Address

University of Tasmania, Hobart, Private Bag 41, Tasmania, Australia

Contact Persons

Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart

Hamish.MaxwellStewart@utas.edu.au

Citation

Morbidity and mortality data for male and female convicts voyages to Van Diemen's Land 1818-53 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/60904 Tasmanian Marriage Register, 1838–1899 http://researchdata.ands.org.au/tasmanian-marriage-register-18381899 Other component parts of the database will be lodged with ecite and the Australian National Data Service (ANDS).

Questionnaire
Download questionnaire
The questionnaire was submitted on 1 April 2015 by Hamish Maxwell-Stewart.

Scope / Status

Original goal

This project will result in a longitudinal study of Australian settlement—founders, both convict and free, and survivors. Based on an historical reconstruction of Tasmanian society across five generations, it includes a case study of the long-run effects of forced labour and emigration on health and survival. It will track for the first time the life course of ordinary people from the founder population to the present day. Using an interdisciplinary framework to guide research on health, human development and ageing at an individual level, and on family formation, community building and social cohesion at the collective, the project will result in a greater understanding of the forces which have shaped the lives of Australians.

Current status

The database is still under construction (2008 - till present). No end date. Current funding available to 2018. Plans are to add annual property valuations, add South African War recruitment data 1899-1901, add unemployed data 1915-1932, extend civil birth and marriage data to 1930, extend death registration data from 1930 to 1980, include Catholic baptism and marriage data 1820-1900, add bank account information for transported British convicts.

Sample definition

The sample consists of a series of linked datasets containing in total 1.25 million observations. These can be subdivided into a series of collections: a) Records relating to 59,500 male and 13,500 female transported convicts arriving in Tasmania 1803-1853; b) Tasmanian parish and civil registration data covering baptism, births and marriages 1803-99 and deaths 1803-1930; c) arrival and departure registers for free people entering and leaving Tasmania; d) information on convicted and discharged Tasmanian prisoners 1865-1926; e) information on enlisted soldiers born in Tasmania 1914-1918. 1. Source(s): Which source forms the basis for the sample: Most datasets are complete counts. A 4% longitudinal sample was taken of the 660,000 conduct records. 2. Sampling units: Conduct records. 3. Variables used for selection: Police number. 4. Selection method: Systematic sample (1 in 25 police numbers, i.e. the identifier each convict was provided with by the 19th century state).

Geographic area under observation

Australian colonies and states, United Kingdom and Ireland.

Keywords

demography, life course, church register, civil certificates, social science, migration, history, convict indents, enlistment registers, prison registers, forced migration, anthropometric history, height, criminology, history of health, history of crime

Sources

From year	End year	Source	Explanation
1803	1899	Baptism	These data are available for most Anglican and Catholic parishes. In the process of being added.
1803	1899	Marriages from church registers	These data are available for most Anglican and Catholic parishes. In the process of being added.
1803	1899	Burials	These data are available for most Anglican and Catholic parishes. In the process of being added.
1838	1899	Civil birth certificates	N = 195,000 records
1838	1899	Civil marriage certificates	N = 51,000 records
1838	1930	Civil death certificates	N = 155,000 records
		Civil population registers	No census returns are available for Australia, but the UK census returns were consulted for family histories.
1817	1858	Departures from Tasmania	Contains information on departures from Van Diemen’s Land in the period to 1817-1858. Usefully it provides information on the ship of arrival in the colony (a great help in identifying former convicts). N = 114,452
1817	1858	Free Arrivals to Tasmania	Contains information on free arrivals. Including from Victoria and other locations in Australia as well as Europe. N = 42,232
1824	1860	Absconding Notices	From 1824 information about convict absconders was routinely entered into the Govt Gazette in the form of runaway notices. Corresponding notices were placed in subsequent editions of the paper notifying captures. Information on all Gazetted absconders and recaptures was transcribed for the period to 1860. N = 68,097
1830	1835	Convict Musters	Once every year a muster was taken to determine the location of every convict. Unfortunately returns only survive for a few years. This dataset contains the muster locations for male convicts still under sentence in the following years 1830, 1832, 1833 and 1835. N = 22,564 Date for female convicts is also included for 1832, 1833 and 1835 N = 5,997
1828	1853	Description Lists for Male Convicts (Con 18)	Description lists for male convicts arriving 1828-1840 [Data is also available for the period 1840-1853 but has not been transcribed as this information is largely duplicated elsewhere]. Unless otherwise indicated all the records below are held by the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office. N = 19,315
1818	1853	Sick lists	This file was compiled from the Admiralty series of Surgeon’s Journals for voyages to Van Diemen’s Land. The original records are held by the National Archive, Kew, London, and were digitally captured and then transcribed by Founders and Survivors. Some additional data was subsequently added for missing vessels from the NA website. The file has been compiled from the list of sick passengers and crew that appears in most journals. In the few cases where a sick list was missing from a journal one has been compiled from the detailed case notes entered into every journal. N = 24,340 records
1803	1853	Archives index file	This index was compiled by the Archives office of Tasmania to provide a means of identifying convicts named in various record groups. Many entries contain references to multiple records that contain information about a particular convict. Note, however, that there are more entries than the number of convicts who served time in Van Diemen’s Land (estimated at 72,500). The file thus contains multiple entries for some individuals. This file has been linked to high quality JPEGs of the original records as well as too many of the record groups listed below. It has been used to drive the online search found here: http://linctas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names N = 81,574
1828	1853	Description Lists for Female Convicts (Con 19)	Description lists for female convicts arriving 1828-1853. Data fully transcribed for 1828-1844. Thereafter description transcribed only since this was the only variable missing in other datasets. N = 10,631
1816	1930	Description Lists for Male Convicts (Con 23)	Description lists for male convicts arriving c1816-1830. This record series was compiled in 1824 but convicts who had arrived earlier but who were still on strength were included. It is arranged in three volumes. The middle volume (Surnames G-O) is missing. There is no surviving parallel record series for females N = 8,817
1816	1840	Male Conduct Records (Con 31)	This record series was compiled in 1824 but many convicts who had arrived earlier but were still on strength were included. It was replaced in 1840 by the Con 33 series. Data includes offence transported for, previous convictions and next of kin. Number of records = 32,059
1840	1853	Male Convicts Conduct Records (Con 33)	This record series was compiled in 1840 to mark the introduction of the probation system. Much of the data it contains is also contained in the Oxley/Meredith dataset and has not been transcribed. Information for 12 ships missing from the Oxley/Meredith dataset was transcribed. N = 2,435
1816	1844	Female Convicts Conduct Records	This record series was compiled in 1824 but many convicts who had arrived earlier but were still on strength were included. It was replaced in 1840 by the Con 41 series. It contains information on the offence each convict was transported for and next of kin. N = 6714
1816	1853	Male Convict Indents	This dataset was originally compiled by Deborah Oxley and David Meredith from indents for convict vessels landing in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) principally in the period after 1840. The original records are held by the State Library of New South Wales. N = 25,139
1816	1853	Female Convict Indents	This dataset was originally compiled by Deborah Oxley and David Meredith from indents for convict vessels landing in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). Many of the fields are not populated for the period prior to 1840 but this missing data is largely covered by Con 19 and Con 40. N = 13,428
1816	1870	Longitudinal sample of convict offences	This file consists of a longitudinal 4 percent sample (1 in 25 convicts) of all offences recorded on individual male and female conduct records. The sample enables a reconstruction of prosecution rates and variations in punishment strategy over time. N = 26,050
1803	1870	Convict Deaths	This file was compiled from a number of different records that were linked by hand. It contains information on all recorded in system convict deaths. That is deaths recorded on convict records, or surviving musters, or despatches from the colonies to London, in church burial registers (where the deceased was noted as a convict) or in the convict department death registers that were compiled from 1840 on. Note that the deaths of serving convicts were not entered in the civil registration system. N = 7,454 men N= 1,237 women
1832	1835	Convict assignment transfers	From September 1832 the Gazette provided regular information on convicts assigned to free settlers or transferred from one settler to another. This file also contains information on convicts loaned to settlers from Government Gangs. Often the number of convicts assigned to a settler or business is listed and not the names of the individuals. Data was only collected for the period to Dec 1835 in order to overlap with the period covered by the 1832. 1833 and 1835 musters. Number of records = 11,712
1824	1860	Convict indulgences	Much information about prisoners was routinely entered into the Government Gazette. This included: Date when ticket of leave conferred (a ticket allowed a convict to work for a wage); Date ticket of leave withdrawn; Date of appointment to the police (the police force was largely manned by serving convicts); Date certificate of freedom issued (this was the notice that confirmed that a sentence had lapsed; Date conditional pardon conferred; Date absolute pardon conferred (an absolute pardon allowed a convict to return to Europe) N = 180,024
1829	1858	Convict permission to Marry register	Applications from both men and women to marry where one or both parties was a serving convict. The data is taken from CON 45/1 (1829-31) and 52/1-7 (1836-1858). These are supplemented by additional entries posted in the Hobart Town Gazette. Many convicts lodged multiple applications often naming different parties. Applications were made by both men and women. This dataset has been linked to the RGD records of marriage (see 6 above). N = 29,313
1858	1952	Paupers	This record series includes information for Tasmanian paupers institutionalised in the period 1858-1952. The data was usually recorded on admission and or discharge and there are often multiple entries for a single pauper. N = 35,161
1914	1918	First World War	Enlistment data for Tasmanian born (in process of being collected) Number of Tasmanian born = 14,899
1865	1926	Tasmanian Police Gazettes	The Tasmanian Police Gazettes were first issued in 1861 and are available in PDF format until 1933. Founders and Survivors secured permission from the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office to use PDF2EXCEL to convert the weekly tables of discharged prisoners to Excel files. The tables were published weekly commencing in 1865 and ending in mid-1910. From this point on data was recorded for weekly convictions only. The tables provide information on age, height and place of birth as well as charge and sentence. N = 50,600

Collection procedure

• When the data was collected and transcribed? - Some data was inherited from 2 former ARC funded projects (Oxley, Meredith, University of New South Wales), Gunn (University of Tasmania. • Data collection for these two projects was undertaken in the period 1995-2004. All other data was entered in the period after 2008. The process data transcription is on-going. • Data collection method - Transcription. • How was the transcription done - By individuals except where sources are typed (Gazettes) in which case by OCR. • How was the checking of the transcription done? - Proof reading and hand checking of outliers. • When was it done? - 2010 on. • Purpose of the transcription: Research. • Control methods by researcher: Internal consistencies, date matching (sentencing, arrival, freedom, marriage, migration, death etc.). • All outliers checked particularly variations in height more than 4 standard deviations for the mean for age. • Data collection staff: Paid research assistants.

Observations

Units of observation

Unit of observation	Explanation	Number
Individuals	It is difficult to be definitive about this since individuals are represented many times within some sources and frequently across sources.	200,000
Married couples		60,000
Families		50,000
Households
Other: Convict voyages land grants properties	300 records, length of voyage, insurance rating extra 2,800 land grants and other properties over 15 acres.

Are there any related observations that are not included in the database?

Yes.

How do the units of observation enter observation?

Individuals: If transported as a convict to Van Diemen’s Land after 1803 or resident or born in Tasmania before 1930. There is some coverage for free migrants as well if the migrant was subsequently arrested, married, gave birth or died in Tasmania. Households: No micro census data is available so households cannot be reconstructed easily although families can use civil registration and parish data. There is the possibility of including annual property valuation data in the future. This includes head of household.

How do the units of observation leave observation?

When their death certificate is traced or we acknowledge failure in tracing them or they migrate.

Dates estimated

Yes.

Are some entry or exit dates unknown?

Yes.

Can observations be linked to geographic locations?

Yes

Are the dates and locations of movements within the observation area recorded?

Partly

Are all individuals who lived in the households of sample members recorded?

Linkage

• Which sources and units of observation have been linked: Births/Baptisms - Yes; Marriages – Yes; Deaths/Burials – Yes; Population registers -Yes; Convict musters; Convict records (descriptions, indents, absconding notices, permission to marry); Census – No; Nominative lists – Partly; Criminal/ Inquest – Partly; Military – Partly; Welfare – Partly. • Documentation of linking (Programme, manually): Algorithm and then hand matching and checking. • Name of software if used: Access. • What are the rules for linking? - Depends on record set. Between convict datasets: Name, police number, ship of arrival. Other court records: Name, place of conviction, date of conviction, sentence. AIF to birth register: name, date of birth, father. To BDM name, age (+ or – 3). • How each reconstructed person is traceable to the original sources /transcribed data? - Jpegs of record groups included in the dataset + links to assist checking. • How is linkage represented in the database? - Person ID, Voyage of arrival ID. • Linkage percentage - Linkage rates vary, for example, within convict dataset 95%. Convict to Death Certificate 55%.

Variables

Events

Type	Dated	Explanation
Birth	Partly
Marriage	Partly	Marriage certificates were not uniformly traced as Indexes give year and death certificates give age of marriage as remembered by the individual’s kin. These are often discrepant and we have read those discrepancies as highly significant of the quality of oral transfer of family history over time.
Death	Yes
Migration	Yes	The ship and passenger lists of both unassisted and assisted immigrants.
Transportation	Yes

Variables

Year of birth (date of birth where registered in Tasmania), age, gender, date of death, cause of death, marital status, next of kin, place of birth, height, physical description, conviction history, migration data (to Tasmania and from Tasmania), literacy, bank account (for convicts) medical history (for convicts on voyage to Australia), admission to and release from institutions, record of punishment (number of lashes, days solitary confinement, hard labour, hard labour in chains), weight (WWI recruits only).

Coding / Reference systems

Occupational titles: UK SES historically specified to account for casual and regular employment and labour market change over time.

Locations (including geo-referenced systems).

Other (religion, civil status etc.).

Data representation

Filemaker Pro.

Kinship relations

Recording

In Births, Marriages and Deaths, parents’ names are given, with occupations in B and M. In Births, Marriages, parents’ names and occupations. In Deaths, parents’ names (if known), marriages, age of marriage, status of spouse, ages and first names of children, number of children deceased, if multiple marriages - in which marriage children were born. This information is supplied by witnesses to the registration of the death, so that those who die disconnected from kin leave no kinship record. Convicts also provided information about next of kin including parents and siblings on arrival.

Depth of information

Up to four generations.

Publications

1. Main publications about the database itself

Bradley, J., Kippen, R., Maxwell-Stewart, H., McCalman, J., & Silcot, S. (2010). Research Note: The Founders and Survivors Project. The History of the Family, 15(4), 467-477.

2. Main or exemplary publications on research based on the database

Maxwell-Stewart, H., Inwood, K., & Stankovich, J. (2015). The Prison and the Colonial Family. History of the Family. doi:10.1080/1081602X.2015.1033737
Inwood, K., Maxwell-Stewart, H., Oxley, D., & Stankovich, J. (2014, October 27). Growing Incomes, Growing People in Nineteenth-Century Tasmania’, Australian Economic History Review [letter from editor 27 October 2014].
Kippen, R., & McCalman, J. (2015, March 18). Mortality under and after sentence of male convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), 1840–1852. The History of the Family. doi:10.1080/1081602X.2015.1022198
Kippen, R., & Maxwell-Stewart, H. (2015). Morbidity and Mortality on Convict Voyages to Australia. In P. Baskerville, & K. Inwood (Eds.), Lives in Transition. McGill-Queens University Press.
Kippen, R., & Maxwell-Stewart, H. (2014). ”What is a man that is a bolter to do? I would steal the Governor’s axe rather than starve”: Old lags and recidivism in the Tasmanian penal colony. In J. Campbell, & V. Miller (Eds.), Transnational Penal Cultures (pp. 165-183). Routledge.

European Historical Population Samples Network

Top menu

Databases

Links to website