Hi

I am going to attempt at doing blogging. Never done this before. Thought about it. Only took five years to get this far. So here I am. What will my blogging be about? Mainly my family history but with a spattering of other things. If all goes well I can have a blog for each family I research.

But for now it will be just this attempt.

Over the last 6 weeks or so I did a unit with the University of Tasmania (UTAS), Convict Ancestors. This was through the Diploma of Family History. I enjoyed the challenge. The final assignment was centred around a convict of choice. So I adopted a convict.

In 1852 my Great-great Grandfather James Molloy was a convict guard on the same voyage. He was returning to the colonies as an immigrant with his wife and two daughters. He had previously been with the Kings Own 4th Foot Regiment in the colony of New South Wales and Norfolk Island from 1831 - 1837. After discharge from the Regiment in 1851 he returns to Australia, being a guard on a convict ship payed for the trip.

I looked at all the names of convicts that were on the Fairlie in 1852. The name SHEEPWASH jumped out at me Not only an unusual name but also a name I had seen mentioned in a family tree relating to the wife of James Molloy. Coincidence. Probably. Good place to start though.

All I had was a name, Samuel Sheepwash, the ship and year that he came out. From this we had to research find out as much as we could about the chosen person, especially his convict life. One thing that made it easy finding out convict records is that the person is known by his name, ship and the year of arrival in colony.

From all the information we garnered a story of 750 - 1000 words was to be written and published on Our Family Past (OFP). Also to be included were two break out stories and references which we will be assessed on. You could write up to ten break out stories but only assessed on two.

What is a break out story? This is just little side wanderings going off topic to explain something. My two topics were about the ship Fairlie and what I had found out about Samuel's life not pertaining to convictions. Like birth, whereabouts and his parents. Sadly I found nothing about marriage or when or where he died. Perhaps one day I will.

We will know officially our results by 6 July, unofficially before then I hope. After I have my results I will post what I wrote to this blog.

I hope some relative of Samuel will see my story and I can share what I have learnt with them.

What did I learn on this trip of discovery with Samuel. There are a lot of places you can search. LINC which is the Tasmanian archive repository has a considerable library of records to view and much is on line. Through researching Samuel I found out about a record pertaining to convict guards which has been instrumental in learning more about James Molloy. The Old Bailey in UK has online resources that are free to search, though Samuel did not feature there.

Due to finances I stuck to what was freely available on line. Ancestry.com and Find My Past are paid services but as a Latter-Day Saints I have a church subscription. although ancestry was available free through UTAS while doing the course. Genealogy forums were also quite helpful in locating records or understanding why.

Referencing was a challenge. I had never heard of the Chicago style before attempting this unit. A whole new way of referencing that confused me at times. There is a need to know where you got your information from Not just so you do not repeat yourself but also someone else could take over and know what you had been doing and why you chose one record over another. I endeavour to be more diligent in citing where my sources are found.

I learnt that in just a few years we have become spoilt in producing a text document. The internet is a great tool to gain information to enhance the subject of our text. Most text editors have many bells and whistles to make our documents appealing to the reader. Our Family Past had a most basic text editor. This was very tedious and time consuming. The idea of OFP is great. My thought bubbles follow the lay out of OFP. a main story that has tangents and meanderings.

Well that is enough for now.

Evelyn

 

My interpretation of what Samuel may have looked like.

He had a small head, medium forehead, chin. mouth and nose.

His hair and eye brows brown, grey eyes, fresh complexion and no whiskers.

He was 13 years when sentenced to transportation and 16 years when the fateful day arrived.