Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 11
  1. #1
    Brick wall demolition expert!
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Lancashire
    Posts
    3,642

    Default Joseph Sudell Transported 1845

    A friend of mine has asked me to help her search for a distant ancestor who was transported to Tasmania in 1845.

    I have his convict records and know that his sentence "expired" in 1853, and thereafter, the trail goes cold.

    He was born about 1807, orginally from Blackburn, Lancashire, and was a bit of a lad, and seems to have left a tangled personal life behind him.

    I have done the usual searches to try and see if I could find any traces of him after 1853, but without success. The name does have a number of variations including some not so obvious such as "Seedle".

    If anyone has any ideas for finding hime after 1853 I would be very grateful. Thanks.

  2. #2
    Knowledgeable and helpful warncoort's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Perth,Western Australia,Australia
    Posts
    640

    Default

    In 1851 gold had been discovered in Victoria so a convict with a ticket of leave,and being a bit of a lad,would find a way to cross Bass Strait.

  3. #3
    Brick wall demolition expert!
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Lancashire
    Posts
    3,642

    Default

    That was one of my thoughts as well. I've checked official death records which are online without success, but of course people could die and not be identified.

    Thanks for the thought.

  4. #4
    Famous for offering help & advice
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    England
    Posts
    1,440

    Default

    His convict record says 'proper name Siddle' - is that correct?

  5. #5
    Brick wall demolition expert!
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Lancashire
    Posts
    3,642

    Default

    Not according to my friend but then Siddle could be an interpretation of the Blackburn accent which has been written down back home as Seedle as well as Sudell on various official documents.......

    Joseph himself wouldn't have been able to help as he was illiterate.

  6. #6
    Knowledgeable and helpful warncoort's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Perth,Western Australia,Australia
    Posts
    640

    Default

    Did he make his way back home?

  7. #7
    Brick wall demolition expert!
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Lancashire
    Posts
    3,642

    Default

    I have looked and can't spot him, but he does seem to be one of those individuals who manage to "float under the radar", as the official records found listing him are his baptism, his marriage, his son's birth, baptism and death, and then of course his criminal and convict records. But he hasn't been found in the 1841 census, so I am not confident that if he did make his way back that he would appear on any census.

    My friend believes that the family wrote to a lawyer looking for him, but apart from the notification of his release I can't find any mention of him in Trove.

  8. #8
    A fountain of knowledge
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Essendon, Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    418

    Default

    Hi Megan,
    I would probably approach this in a different way. Looking at Joseph's convict description record https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-77$init=CON33-1-77p201 and with the use of a list of abbreviations used in the Tasmanian convict records, you can trace his movements while the government was still keeping tabs on him.
    PB Prisoners Barracks (Hobart I presume) 16/7/1847
    PHH 20/5/1847 (Probation Pass Holder)
    13/9/1847 Mr Lowe Nicholls Rivulet
    16/2/1848 PB (Prisoners Barracks)
    13/3/1848 FF Williams, Brickfields (presume in Hobart)
    1 Jan 1849 Williams (his supervisor,)charged him with being out after hours in Hobart, admonished.
    15/2/50 Hill & Britton, Hosp. Bay
    Ticket of Leave 26/3/1850
    Ticket of Leave 1 Mar 1852 Huon, drunk, fined 5/- (I presume the TL ref means he was holding a TL when charged with drunkenness, because he got the TL in 1850)
    Free Certificate 14 Mar 1853

    Joseph seems to have moved from Hobart to the Huon River - Nicholls Rivulet and Hospital Bay are down south on the Huon, and the last recorded place for him was Huon. His record is a good one, with only two minor infractions which took him to court - being out after hours and being drunk. So he was a pretty exemplary convict. Ticket of Leave holders were permitted to work for themselves, but had to remain in the area, report regularly, and go to church regularly.

    If he had a good job, and maybe a new relationship, he may well have stayed in the area after he got his Certificate of Freedom. BDM records in Tassie are not the best, many events missing from the official record, but maybe if you gave the Huon area a good going over, you might find a trace of him. As he seems to have been a neglectful family man, I suppose he didn't apply to have his family come out, which was possible to do.

    I had a number of Convicts in Tassie when the gold rush occurred, and none of them took off for the goldfields, they just stayed in Tassie, probably glad to have found a place for themselves after the trauma of transportation. Joseph was 50 by the time he got his CF, so I think the chances are he stayed where he was comfortable. But that is just a guess.

    My husband's widowed gt grandmother disappeared from view after about 1885, and I could not find a trace of her anywhere. She had children living in Western Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales, and could have been living with any of them when she died. She might have remarried - in any State. Could not for the life of me find any trace of her, but I kept going back to Trove, and I think it was only late last year that a new Tassie newspaper was added to Trove, and up popped a death notice for her. She died not far from the last place I knew she lived, living in the household of a son who stayed in Tassie. No death recorded by the Registrar. No headstone at the cemetery. I was intending to chase down a church burial record, but the death notice turned up first.

    There is an AUS-TAS Rootsweb mailing list which you could join and get some advice about research in that area. I'm not familiar with it, as I live in Victoria.

    Good luck,

    Lenore

  9. #9

    Default

    Trove (Australian Newspapers) https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/search?adv=y

    Pop "sudall joseph" in The Phrase - should return 2 hits; check out Sunday Times, 11 May 1902

    Seems you're not the first to try and track him down!
    "dyfal donc a dyr y garreg"

  10. #10

    Default

    Searching Trove under "joseph sudall" will return an 1853 entry of his sentence expiring.
    "dyfal donc a dyr y garreg"

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Select a file: