Overview

Records in the Database

Submitting Details

Transcribing the Records

The Female Family Founders Database is an initiative of the Female Factory Research Group. If you have a connection to a female convict who lived in Tasmania, please submit your details to us.

Overview

Any female convict who spent time in Van Diemen's Land is included in the database.  Thus, it not only includes those women transported directly to VDL, but also those who came free and were convicted here during the period of transportation (1804-1853), or those who were transported to NSW and later came to VDL (many of whom came via Norfolk Island).

The database has four purposes:

	to link descendants and researchers of these convict women;
	to act as a repository of stories and images of these convict women;
	to determine which of these convict women spent time in the female factories and on the Anson probation station; and
	to document the lives of our Female Family Founders.

Our aim is to have a complete database of all of these women by 2015.  At present we have the names of 13,737 female convicts in the database, including all those transported directly to Van Diemen's Land.

Voluntary members of the Female Factory Research Group are responsible for the design of the database, its ongoing maintenance, data entry and data retrieval.

Since the some of the information for the database is submitted by individuals, we cannot always guarantee the integrity of the data, though attempts are made to verify the data.

The Female Factory Research Group has recently been awarded a Tasmanian Community Fund grant in order to purchase the necessary equipment to transcribe all female convict records and enter them into the database. However, as the transcription and data entry is voluntary, the project will take some years to complete.

Records in the Database

To find a convict, click on the letter of the alphabet with which her surname begins. You will view a list of records from the database providing name, ship, police number, age and number of descendants/researchers (if any).

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z other
(as at 7 May 2008)

If you wish to view the current list of records in the Female Family Founders Database for which we have descendants and/or researchers associated with the convict, click on the link below.  There are currently 2,333 female convicts in the database for whom we have descendants and/or researchers (including those people who have adopted a convict) who have given permission for their contact details to be passed on to other descendants/researchers.

Convicts in the Database with Associated Descendants/Researchers
(as at 30 January 2010)

Information on descendants/researchers is provided to other descendants/researchers of a convict if the appropriate permissions have been provided—simply email us (or write to us, with a stamped self-addressed envelope included) with the details of the convict.

Please remember that the database is continually growing—new information is added as we continue to transcribe convict records and as it is received from descendants and other researchers—so come back regularly to check the list.

If your convict appears on a list, but you have not submitted details, please do so, so that you can be listed as a descendant/researcher—see below, submitting details.

Submitting Details

Descendants and other researchers of convict women who spent time in Van Diemen's Land are encouraged to record the names and details of their convict(s) and themselves as descendants/researchers in the Female Family Founders Database.  This will enable us to put other descendants and researchers of your convict in contact with you, and vice versa.

To submit your details as a descendant or researcher of a female convict in our Female Family Founders Database please download and complete the FFFDB Permission form.

PDF format     Word format.

Previous submitters, if you have changed your contact details (eg email address), please let us know.

The database can also store images, documents and other digital data. 

• If you have a photo or other image of your convict ancestor, we can store a digital copy in the database.  When submitting a photo or other image, please complete the Image Copy Permission Form.

PDF format     Word format.

• If you submit documents to be stored in the database for which you are the author (ie, any additional information that is not included on the Submit Information on a Convict form), please complete the Document Copy Permission Form.

PDF format     Word format.

We would appreciate it if you could provide any images and/or documents in digital format.  However, we can scan them in if you do not have digital copies. 

If you have previously submitted a convict to the database, and wish to change any of the information submitted (eg your email address), please email us the changed information.

Transcribing the Records

Members of the Female Factory Research Group are currently transcribing the convict records of all female convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land into the Female Family Founders Database. It is slow going—listed here are those ships which have been completed or are in process.

* indicates the ship came via Sydney, NSW