This work was conceived by the Members and Staff of the New South Wales Ethnic Affairs Commission. It was their hope that someone with knowledge of the Australian convict period would write about the convicts who were not English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish born. The Commission was well aware of the quite ludicrous fallacy that the enduring image of the convicts transported to the Australian Colonies was solely one of the British criminals or that these people came exclusively from Britain or Ireland.
Many of the transported convicts and exiles (ie. machine breakers, patriots, Ludites, swing rebels, trade unionists, Chartists, prisoners of war and rebels had never seen England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland.
There were over 165,000 convicts sent to Australia during the convict era. Almost all of the British transported convicts were sent to Australia after 1787 but many others came from all over the world.
Almost 1400 people born outside Britain and Ireland were identified and validated from convict indents, surviving official documents and literary works including family histories. Each of the convicts are listed in a country-by-country listing, and also gives the name of the ship each arrived on.
Just some of the countries that convicts came from include: Africa, Batavia, Belgium, Calcutta, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, East Prussia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Isle of Man, Italy, Jamaica, Madagascar, Malta, Norway, Nova Scotia, Persia, Phillipines, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, United States of America, and West Indies, but many many more are listed.
Contents:
Introduction
Preface
Research Methodology
Why I Wrote this Book
Acknowledgements
About the Author's Ethnic Background
Who the Anglo and Celtic Peoples Were
The Convict's Role
Who the Convicts Were
Where the Convicts came From
The Peoples who were the Convicts
Names
Statistical Summary
Places/Names
Unplaced Names
Bibliography
The Author
