Tracing Family Branches

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter!  Easter this year for us was a very happy, relaxed, chocolatey affair, as the Easter Bunny really spoiled the grandchildren.  We are truly blessed to have this time with all of our children and grandchildren living with us.  We are making so many precious memories together!  The weather has been glorious here this Easter, which has been an added bonus, so much so that I even got in and had what will probably be my last swim for the season in our pool!  The water was freezing but the sun was lovely and warm and there was no wind, so it was very refreshing.  I love the water and we have had so much fun in it with the grandchildren this season, so I couldn’t resist one last swim!   The holiday weekend ended on a high note as I received the two transcriptions that I had ordered from NSW Family History Transcriptions .  Yet again the service was outstanding and I am very pleased with both the process and the...

On this day in 1788 my 5th Great Grandmother Mary Turner (also known as Mary Wilks/Wilkes) was a female convict on the first fleet ship Lady Penrhyn suffering below ship in hot, harsh and extremely squalid conditions after a horrific voyage from England. Mary’s feet would not touch Australian soil until February when the true perils of her situation here would make itself known to her and the other convict women!  A young former servant convicted of stealing clothing she was unwanted in her homeland and exported to this country to be used for domestic and other work and as sexual relief and breeding stock.  Her experience as a convict and this harsh foreign land should have broken her but she was a resourceful, tenacious survivor!  She was sentenced to 50 lashes in 1789 for stealing cabbages (some wanted to execute her as they believed she had committed perjury as well) and in 1790 she was sent to Norfolk Island where she stayed until 1793. Mary died in Sydney in 1808 and...

My 5th Great Grandmother Mary Turner (also known as Mary Wilks/Wilkes) is my earliest known and documented Australian relative.  She was tried at Worcester on  5th March 1785 and sentenced to seven years. Mary arrived on the ship Lady Penrhyn   in 1788.   It seems the 5th of March was not an auspicious trial date for Mary in 1785 or later in 1789!   On the 5th  March 1789 she was tried for stealing six cabbages from the garden of William Parr, she was found guilty and sentenced to 50 lashes.  Later in March 1789 she also was in trouble for her testimony in the trial of  Royal Marines accused of stealing from the government stores  (six of them were found guilty and executed) in which it was believed by some that she had perjured herself.  Mary was sent to Norfolk Island in 1790 on board the ship Sirius .  Apparently she stayed on Norfolk Island until 1793 when she returned to Port Jackson on board the ship Kitty .   Her de fact...