Thanks for that Rob. The book sounds really interesting. I had occasion to look
through the Fremantle Prison Females Prisoners Registers kept in the State
Record Office recently. Obviously none of those were old convicts but
interesting none the less.
Each prisoner had half a page allocated to them with their details and the
details of their offences. Quite a few had photographs attached. These are
about the size of a postage stamp and usually 2 shots, one side view, one front
(one had hat on, the other hat off). A few of the more interesting women had
sheets of paper pasted into the book because a half page was not enough to
record the numerous times they had spent in prison. The majority of offences
were for drunkenness, offensive language or loitering
Caroline
-----Original Message-----
From: dps-chat-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:dps-chat-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Rob Nelson, Perth WA
Sent: Sunday, 26 March 2017 7:48 AM
To: ALL <dps-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [dps-chat] Fwd: 74 original WA convict pics found among Fremantle
Prison records
'Morning ALL, especially those who don't get to see the West Australian
newspaper.
Yesterday's paper featured a two-page spread announcing the pending release of
a new 'Friends of the Battye Library' book which deals with the discovery of 74
photos previously undetected among old Fremantle Prison records in the vaults
of the State Records Office of WA.
Some of the photos are nearly 130 years old and date back to convicts who
originally arrived in the colony in 1850 and onwards.
The secret is that they were mug shots of some of those who re-offended and
re-entered the prison system as local prisoners. Apparently, after 1888, many
Fremantle Prison inmates were photographed and their mug shots were attached to
their record in the official prison registers.
I'm pretty sure I've heard of similar photos popping up in Tasmania, but this
new collection is believed to be the biggest collection of convict photographs
in Australia.
The new book will feature the photos and a brief history of each man.
I've attached a copy of the article from the 'West' and for those who want to
take it a bit further, an on-line explanation AND short video can be seen at:
https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/old-photos-discovered-of-wa-convicts-bc-5370852346001
Cheers as always, ROB!
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Genealogy: Tracing yourself back to better people
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