by Helen Connor Rosetta (Rose) Johnson – Johnston(e) – was born in County Louth, Ireland in about 1773. Rosetta was convicted at the Surrey Assizes – Lent 24 March 1814 [1] and sentenced to “Let them be transported beyond the seas for seven years.” Rose had stolen 18 yards of sheeting, value of seven shillings, and a shawl, value of 30 shillings, in the parish of St George the Martyr in Southwark, aged 29 years. There is no mention of … Continue reading
I had never considered the possibility of having convicts in my ancestral heritage. I don’t know why it had not occurred to me, considering that the convict story is so much a part of Australia’s early colonial history. I think I naively assumed that if there had been convicts amongst my early ancestors I somehow would have known about them. I would have heard rumours or detected a hint of mystery or noticed veiled silences around certain family stories. However, … Continue reading
Just over a year ago, only a few months after I had joined the Genealogical Society of Queensland, I attended an Information Session on Timelines that was held at GSQ. At the time I was new to my family search and was deeply engrossed in obtaining birth, death and marriage certificates and was satisfied enough just to place each ancestor in the context of where they had been born or died or who was married to whom and where they … Continue reading
