Convict Records Online

Tasmania's world recognised convict records can now be viewed online.

The records of the convict system in Tasmania during the first fifty years of European settlement here were added to the UNESCO international Memory of the World Register in June 2007, recognising their significance for the whole world..

The records document both the system and the lives of over 75,000 individuals and so far almost 300 volumes of the records have been digitised and can now be viewed on this website. They comprise almost 70,000 images.

Viewing online can be done in three different ways by

accessing the record item (volume) description on the Tasmanian Archives Online database (TAO), and clicking on the ‘view this record online’ link
clicking on the link from the record (volume) listed on the page for the individual convict from the Tasmanian Convicts index (in ‘name indexes’)
clicking on the link to the record item (volume) in our digitised records list

These last two options also link first to the relevant TAO record item page to provide descriptive information about the record, and particularly about its arrangement, to enhance use.

The records have been digitised as volumes (including their covers) to retain their archival integrity and the ‘image viewer’ enables you to move through the volume page by page or select the specific page you wish to see. As the ‘image viewer’ treats the volume covers as pages (as well as any unnumbered pages in the volume) the image page numbers will not match exactly to the record page numbers, if you have a reference to a precise record page number.

Our Brief Guide No 20 may be useful in understanding the format of these records as well as many of the abbreviations used by the Convict department authorities. An extensive guide to all the convict records and the administration of the convict system in Tasmania is also available on our website.