Australians to learn of their convict ancestry as details of people sent down under 200 years ago are released

Criminal acts: A drawing of soldiers inspecting convicts arriving in Sydney in the 18th Century

An Irish family re-enacting the experiences of early convict settlers in New South Wales in the TV series 'The Colony'. Many Australians will be able to trace the details of their ancestry on Tuesday

The dark details of their family histories are to be revealed to thousands of Australians this week following the release of details of the convicts Britain sent to the new colony more than 200 years ago.

The British government has released the details to coincide with Australia Day on Tuesday, allowing individuals to search through an online data base to check if they are descended from criminals.

If they do find they have convict ancestors, most Australians are unlikely to be perturbed - surveys have revealed that many regard having a convict as an early family member as an interesting talking point at dinner parties.
Many of the convicts sent to Australia in the 1700s and 1800s were transported for minor crimes such as stealing bread or riding off with someone's horse.

Included among the records being released through the British website Ancestry.co.uk, which will be free to be logged on to until January 30 - taking in Australia Day - are the Convict Registers of Conditional and Absolute Pardons from 1791 to 1846.
It details more than 21,000 convicts who were set free in New South Wales and who ended up with plots of land given to them by the government or who made names for themselves in setting up businesses.

Also detailed are 34,000 New South Wales Certificates of Freedom which were handed out in the mid-1800s to convicts who had served prison terms of between seven and 14 years.

Mr Dan Jones, international content director of the data base, says about one in three Britons are believed to have a convict ancestor - and that would include present day Australians whose ancestry dates back to the years following Captain Cook's voyages of discovery to the lands on the other side of the world.

'While Australia's convict history itself has been well documented, there are thousands of individual stories in the collection just waiting to be told,' said Mr Jones.

Australians are now hoping that when they begin searches, they will be able to find someone in their early family who has had such an interesting life that it is worth repeating to everyone prepared to listen.

Among those transported from British and Irish shores were John Kelly, an Irish convict who was the father of a very famous son - bushranger Ned Kelly.
There was also William Chopin, a convict who became a chemist at a hospital in New South Wales - but who was later sent back to jail after being convicted of being an abortionist.

One of the most feared convicts, who escaped custody, was Alexander Pearce who became a cannibal, eating one of his fellow escapers.

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