Tasmania Reads: Reading a Convict Record (Part One: The Challenge)
The State Library and Archive Service is issuing a challenge to Tasmanians to read five different examples of nineteenth-century handwriting from our Heritage Collections, each featuring a different set of records held in the State Archives.
The scripts are selected to give you insights into some of the key strengths of our collection and we hope they will pique your interest to explore further.
Today’s challenge is reading the script of a convict record. The Tasmanian State Archive’s convict records were recognised by UNESCO in 2006 as having world significance and are used as the basis for a wide range of historical studies as well as for genealogical research.
Your Transcription Challenge
Your second challenge is to transcribe the conduct record of Isaac Solomon. The information in this section of the conduct record was mostly self-reported by convicts on their arrival to Van Diemen’s Land during the assignment period (pre-1840).
This section of the convict record is in the top right-hand corner and usually included what the convict was transported for, their gaol report, the hulk report, marital status, what offences the convict stated they were convicted for and former convictions and the Surgeon’s report.
Hint: Convict records, commonly used abbreviations .
The Answer …
will be published in our blog this afternoon. Stay tuned!