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Hi Les,

Thank you for sharing that story.

They certainly were very tough times and the penalties paid often far outweighed the crimes. It's interesting to hear that your ancestor also remarried - it seems to me as if life reset itself for these people once they made it to Australia. It certainly makes an interesting trail for genealogists.

Debs

Hi all,

Best wishes of the season 

Could anyone with access to the 1841, 1851 or 1861 census for Cambridgeshire please do a look-up for me? It's to add an extra layer of family to a genealogy Christmas present so I'm really hoping someone can help.

I'm looking for the EVERITT family; William (born c1820) and his wife Martha (born c1820) and probably one or more children.  I know that William and Martha married in Cambridge in 1846 and had several children before emigrating to New Zealand in 1862.

Martha's maiden name was IRELAND and her father's name was supposedly James IRELAND so if anyone could also look for this family name it would be most appreciated.

Many thanks,

Debs

Hi again Karenlee,

It's always lovely to find how many kiwi's (and honorary kiwi's) you meet in the genealogy world.

I've only had a few minutes to look, but thanks to your "High Ongar" and IGI suggestions I've already come up with a huge range of websites and areas of interest to follow up on. Even just googling BETTIS and HIGH ONGAR gets some interesting sites to follow up on.

Thank you again for taking the time to help me out. May Santa bring you all the genealogy leads you could wish for 

Debs

Hi all,

I'm trying to trace my partner's family tree as a Christmas present and am currently following back the BETTIS family line, which I have just learnt comes from Essex.

According to his convict papers, on 21 May 1844 in Chelmsford, Essex, William BETTIS was put to trial and found guilty of stealing a lamb, being subsequently sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in Tasmania, Australia. At the time of his trial he was 22 years old and had a wife Ann and one child, though this didn't stop him from remarrying in Tasmania in 1854.

I don't have currently have access to the Ancestry website so can't check the census records for more details but perhaps someone with a better knowledge of the Essex area (and more experience with old handwriting) could translate some of the fields from the attached image for me.

I know the offence involved stealing a lamb but other than that I'm really struggling with translating the notes. I would particularly like to know if anyone recognises the place name in the field "Native Place".

If anyone has any ideas, or other information about the Bettis family, I'd love to hear from you.

Best wishes of the season,   

Debra

Yay!

Got it! How fascinating - red hair, red eyebrows, high forehead, small nose & mouth and hazel eyes.

What an amazing resource. After re-reading the instructions properly, I realised the Aurora was last in the book and found Sarah around the 180 page mark. Well worth the search!!

Many thanks Cando & Prue.