My convicts: new Aussie history blog coming soon

UPDATE

Family on the inside

So what happened to Catherine Dixon my great, great, great, great grandmother?

She was transported to New South Wales and then was ‘sent down’* to the Parramatta Female Factory in 1838 with her six-year-old daughter. I followed her footsteps at the ‘Factory’ with my camera. I looked into what life would have been like for the two of them inside the 16 foot stone walls.

See my earlier posts, A Convict in the Tree and A Convict Inside

And I promised to tell the story of what happened to Catherine and her children next…

And then…

Looking into the records I found something weird…

an odd error turned into something strange, turned into something very fishy…

Are the records the sloppy work of the superintendent and the oddities just a weird string of ‘errors’?

Or

is there a chain of children ‘swapping’ going on?

I’m sorry to keep you hanging but it requires more digging to sort out my suspicions…

And now that my history bent has taken flight on this blog, I’m going to start an Australian history / family history blog for the stories that don’t quite fit here on Daytripper Sippers.

It’ll be a week yet. I’ll keep you posted when it’s up and running.

And Catherine Dixon, my family convict (and others), will have a home of her own.  ♦

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* ‘sent down’ – sent to prison or gaol / jail,

In Catherine’s case, she was ‘sent down’ to the Female Factory in Parramatta, a penitentiary, workhouse, refuge and convict women’s hospital near Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

A convict inside (Parramatta Female Factory)

1818 convict wall, Parramatta Female Factory                        (2nd Class yard)

In 1838 Catherine Dixon found herself on the wrong side of this wall. She was my great great great great grandmother. So I retraced her footsteps, with my camera, to see what life was like for her ‘on the inside’.

Why was Catherine ‘inside’?

She was a thirty year old widow sentenced to 14 years transportation for receiving stolen goods [Lancaster Quarter Sessions 1836 trial register]. Her four young children were sent with her to New South Wales.

(To see a description of what Catherine looked like and more on her transportation to Australia go to Part 1, ‘A convict in the tree’.)

At the journey’s end Catherine had been assigned to M Sparke of Sydney. But soon afterward she and her daughter were sent to this place, the Female Factory in Parramatta.