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The Founders and Survivors project began in 2007 as a collaborative initiative between several universities, government agencies, demographers, genealogists, and population health researchers. The project extracted data related to
The convict records of Tasmania's colonial founders and survivors are held by the
Data was collected from convict records of the 76,820 men, women, and children transported to Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) during the 19th century as well as their descendants. Records kept by the government administrators of the convict system included detailed descriptions of height, eye colour, hair colour, facial characteristics, literacy level, trade skills, place of birth, family history, past crimes, sentence, behaviour during incarceration, later punishments, grants of pardon, tickets of leave, marriage, and death. By tracing family histories, data was collected on life span, health, future occupations and geographical movement of the convicts and their descendants. Comparison with services records of descendants who served in the AIF in World War investigated changes in height, childhood diet and health, and resilience under stress.
Data from the Founders and Survivors project was linked to the Digital
VDL Founders and Survivors Convicts 1802-1853
Founders and Survivors Searchable Database
Van Diemen's Land Colonial history of Tasmania
convicts in Australia
Between 1788 and 1868, about 162,000 Penal transportation, convicts were transported from Great Britain, Britain and Ireland to various list of Australian penal colonies, penal colonies in Australia.
The British Government began transporting c ...
who were transported to Van Diemen’s Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...
or born there between 1803-1900.
Project goals
The project's aim was to build a dataset of life course history generated from the extensive collection of Tasmanian convict records. This data was used to examine the long-term impact of convict transportation on future health and well-being. The project later expanded to include a study of the inter-generational transmission of inequality and risk of conviction.Convict records
The convict records of Tasmania's colonial founders and survivors are held by the State Library of New South Wales
The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...
and the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office accessible through LINC Tasmania. These convict records are listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...
heritage database as being a record of forced emigration at the beginning of the modern age of globalisation which transformed the lives of those British and Irish convicts, and largely destroyed the lives and culture of Australia’s Indigenous people. In addition to administrative records, data from Government Gazettes
A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establis ...
provided details of convict assignment to free settlers.
Project framework
The project relied on the mass-digitisation of over 100,000 images, manual transcription of the convict records, XML record matching, volunteer crowdsourcing, creation of a customised genealogical database for population and family history analysis, and statistical analyses.McCalman, Janet, Leonard Smith, Sandra Silcot, and Rebecca Kippen. "Building a Life Course Dataset from Australian Convict Records: Founders & Survivors: Australian Life Courses in Historical Context, 1803–1920." In Population Reconstruction, pp. 285-298. Springer, Cham, 2015.
Data was collected from convict records of the 76,820 men, women, and children transported to Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) during the 19th century as well as their descendants. Records kept by the government administrators of the convict system included detailed descriptions of height, eye colour, hair colour, facial characteristics, literacy level, trade skills, place of birth, family history, past crimes, sentence, behaviour during incarceration, later punishments, grants of pardon, tickets of leave, marriage, and death. By tracing family histories, data was collected on life span, health, future occupations and geographical movement of the convicts and their descendants. Comparison with services records of descendants who served in the AIF in World War investigated changes in height, childhood diet and health, and resilience under stress.
Data from the Founders and Survivors project was linked to the Digital Panopticon
The panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be o ...
project which studied the lives of 90,000 British citizens convicted of crimes at the Old Bailey in London between 1780 and 1925.
Founders and survivors online database
The Founders and Survivors Online Database of Tasmanian Convicts (1818-1853) is a searchable database accessible by the public which includes data on all the convicts transported to Tasmania in the 19th century. The database is managed by The University of Melbourne and accessible through Research Data Australia. Users can search for individual records by First Name, Surname or Police Number with access to all conduct registers and ship logs.Education
The project has been translated into a number of educational resources that tell the stories of Tasmania's convicts. These include Lifelines stories told in film and song, as well as the Mugsheets interactive online face-making app.See also
*Convict tramway
The Convict Tramway was hauled by human power: convicts from the Port Arthur convict settlement. and was created to replace the hazardous sea voyage from Hobart to Port Arthur, Tasmania. Charles O'Hara Booth oversaw the construction of the ...
References
{{reflistExternal links
VDL Founders and Survivors Convicts 1802-1853
Founders and Survivors Searchable Database
Van Diemen's Land Colonial history of Tasmania