Hi Suzy
I think I remember doing a little bit of looking for Edmund once before, and he certainly didn't leave much of a trail!
A convict was (usually) first granted a
ticket of leave after serving some of his or her sentence. It was sort of like being out on parole - they were allowed (with restrictions, depending on who they were, what jurisdiction they were in etc.) to be self-employed, to employ others, to choose a place to live etc. but were still answerable to the convict system. A ToL could be revoked if conditions were breached.
After the expiration of their full sentence, a convict was granted a
Certificate of Freedom. This meant that they were essentially free to go and do whatever they wanted. Many chose to stay on in the colonies but some did return home or go elsewhere.
Some convicts, depending on their sentences, were granted Conditional Pardons and Full Pardons, but I don't know much about those. I think they were basically the same as getting a ToL and a CoF, but were for convicts with sentences such as Life (again, not 100% sure about that).
Edmund would have had restrictions placed on him when he was granted his Ticket of Leave - he would probably have had to stay locally to where he was imprisoned, for example. Once he had his Certificate of Freedom he could have moved away or done anything he liked.
Many people in these early times of the colonies do disappear off the radar completely and it may just be a matter of it being prior to civil registration - if they died in the bush they would probably have just been buried by family or neighbours with no church involvement. Even in a place like Sydney, and even after civil registration was introduced, people still just "disappear"...I have quite a few "undead" rellies there still!!
Cheers
Prue