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2022 - Transportation: Crime and Criminals

Presented by Lorna Kinnaird via Zoom on Thursday Aug 11th at 7:00PM.

Between 1787 and 1868, around eight thousand Scottish men, women and children were transported to Australia. Scots accounted for only a small proportion of all of those transported. Around 162,000 convicts were sent to Australia between 1787 and 1868. Lorna will discuss how the trial papers at the National Records of Scotland can help provide the background to those convictions and where to find them. From the information found in trial papers, she will then show how it is possible to trace more on the family in Scottish sources – and therefore firmly establish links between Scotland and Australia. Everyone loves a scoundrel in the family – and its often trial papers (court papers) that we find many of our ancestors – so a good start to unravelling the details around those sent away from their homeland. Lorna will include good examples to show the level of detail found in trial papers.

Lorna Kinnaird is a Scottish genealogist and researcher in archives, accredited by ASGRA (Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives), Postgraduate Diploma with Strathclyde University and a Tutor on the Correspondence Course with IHGS (Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies) in Canterbury, England. She is Secretary for ASGRA and Chairman for the Lothians Family History Society.

Download the video of the presentation.