Bound for Australia

From the arrival of the First Fleet in 1787, bringing almost 1,500 convicts and marines to establish a penal colony, to the end of transportation in 1868, approximately 165,000 criminals were sent from Britain to Australia as publishment for a range of crimes, most often for theft. Added to this were guards, administrators and free settlers, the latter increasing in number as the transported convicts decreased. Because of the vast distance involved, few returned, and the descendants of many of them live in Australia today. Completely revised and expanded to include new research, Bound for Australia is the essential guide to the records kept in Britain of those who were sent there as punishment or who went to start a new life and will be an invaluable tool for any family historian who discovers an ancestor amongst their number and wants to trace their antipodean relatives.