I've got an ancestor, Thomas Jones, who according to my grandfather, was a convict. He told me that the family was sent out as well with him. So far I've traced back to a Thomas Jones born in Cardigan shire, Wales about 1832. He came to Moreton Bay and settled in Fortitude Valley, married Catherine Hammill from Co. Clare, Ireland (B. 1835 M. 16/12/1861) and entered a partnership in a quarry business with Stephen Hammill in Jane Street, Fortitude Valley. What I can't find and would like help with if anyone can, is which Thomas is the convict, this gentleman or his father, also called Thomas Jones (according to my granddad). I so far can find no confirmation on his parents' names. Does anyone have any more info?

Hi
Had a quick look at your question. Given a date of birth app 1830 if this Thomas had been transported it would almost certainly have been to Van Diemens Land and probably he not younger than 14 (there were earlier exceptions. Transportation to the easten states ceased by 1854. Anyway I checked the Thomas Jones convict arrivals back to 1846 and there were none which even closely matched your man. Logically then if Thomas in 1832 had had a convict parent he (Thomas) must have been Australian born. Also out of interest looked for a possible marriage around 1831 and involving a convict parent There is always mostly a certain amonut of truth in family stories though rather twisted.
Again found a marriage of a Thomas Jones (said to be free) and Catherine Rion a convict (one of two ship loads of women transported at the express wish of the vDL people).
This couple DID have a son born 1833 whom they named Thomas.

All this doesn't help you very much except in determing that Thomas of 1832 was almost certainly NOT the convict. Incidentally there were around 170 Tasmanian convicts who used the name Thomas Jones!!
Regards

Here I'm back again Kate.
Thought a little further about what you were told and there is a possibility that I had left out. Families you can assume never accompanied the convict but a convict after having serving his sentence could ask for his family to be sent to him and this at government expense. It can be assumed that not many wives waited that long but a number of Tas. and I know NSW convict families did take advantage of this possibilty. Such families travelled steerage and again in Tas. the application was recorded but their arrival not.
However, taking your grandfather's story as correct and that the 1832 Thomas was not the convict, opens up another line to look at. The father of Thomas (1832) must have been convicted and transported after 1830 which mesns he could well have been sent to NSW, which fits the story better. Your search then becomes one of looking for a Thomas Jones who applied to have his family sent to NSW probably some time after say 1835 and before 1845 when all convicts were transferred to Tasmania. In that I can't help you. Marriages in Cardiganshire? At least 80 between 1820 and 1830 and no help. But I have heard that NSW kept reasonable records of applications for families to travel!
Good luck Denis

Here I'm back again Kate.
Thought a little further about what you were told and there is a possibility that I had left out. Families you can assume never accompanied the convict but a convict after having serving his sentence could ask for his family to be sent to him and this at government expense. It can be assumed that not many wives waited that long but a number of Tas. and I know NSW convict families did take advantage of this possibilty. Such families travelled steerage and again in Tas. the application was recorded but their arrival not.
However, taking your grandfather's story as correct and that the 1832 Thomas was not the convict, opens up another line to look at. The father of Thomas (1832) must have been convicted and transported after 1830 which mesns he could well have been sent to NSW, which fits the story better. Your search then becomes one of looking for a Thomas Jones who applied to have his family sent to NSW probably some time after say 1835 and before 1845 when all convicts were transferred to Tasmania. In that I can't help you. Marriages in Cardiganshire? At least 80 between 1820 and 1830 and no help. But I have heard that NSW kept reasonable records of applications for families to travel!
Good luck Denis

Hi Julleigh,

Thanks for replying. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I've been drowning in Thomas Jones for a few weeks now and getting nowhere. I'm starting to doubt anything my granddad told me.

I was hoping I had a smarter, more genealogically-devoted cousin out there somewhere that had already looked into all this and had figured it out, but thank you for confirming it's probably not Thomas (b.1832). There's only one probability I could find for his father, but there's no way to confirm he's the right one, or granddad's stories are false, or some records are missing. Do you know how complete the convict records we have available are?

Regards, Kate.

Hi Kate,
Between all the different sites with convict records,,,,they are pretty accurate and very valuable.
The problem is,,there are just soooo many Thomas JONES to choose from.
Collecting all of them,,,from Wales,,,IF you are sure it is the one from Wales,,,then following them until you narrow them down is about the only way to go. (barr purchaing all certs etc)

I was looking into other stuff and Thomas JONES was a quarryman, in Jane St..(I think he may have lived on a corner,,or moved round the corner,,or maybe even the street names merged/changed, as I think I can follow him)

Are you sure you traced back correctly or maybe tried to match things up with grandpa's story???

Who is the closest person to you (in that line) that you know for a fact is the right person??
Maybe if a few of us follow it back (using all our different resources) we will either come to the same conclusion and know for sure,,OR,,come up with different endings that will open more options..

Kellie

Thanks Denis,

Yeah, the Welsh records are a dead end. Even if I knew Thomas's (1832) mum's name, she's probably not recorded under her maiden name. There's so many with just first names or just Mrs Jones. So frustrating!

I've had a go at the Immigration records and found no really good matches, nothing definite. There's a few possible families, but their religion's usually CofE or Protestant, while my family's Roman Catholic. I'm surprised actually at how rare catholics were in general, but I suppose I shouldn't be.

The other possibility I've thought of is if Thomas snr was actually [Some other first name] Thomas (that wasn't recorded) Jones. I'll keep looking. Thanks for your helpful suggestions.

Regards,
Kate.

Hi Kellie,
Yeah, the quarryman is my g.g.granddad. He was in partnership with his wife's (Catherine) relative Stephen Hamil (Hammill) in the quarry business. (I'm not sure if he's a brother, cousin, or an uncle, but I know he's not her father.) I'm sure as far back as the quarryman, but I can't find his mother's name: their marriage certificate didn't have information on parents and there are 3 possible candidates for death records in the Qld Registry and I'm steeling myself to buy 3 death certificates (over $100) hoping one of them is mine and has some further information on it.

There's so many possibilities. His son and g.grandson were both amateur gold prospectors. Who knows, maybe they got the bug from the quarryman who headed of to Ballarat chasing gold and died there instead!

Thank you for your help, Kellie.

Regards,
Kate.

Hi Kate and Kellie
Sorry about that 1.49/1.52 - thought I hadn't and made sure I had.
Going out on a limb - Kate I believe the story of your grandfather with one difference which is that the family didn't arrive with him but later. That the convict was not Thomas 1832 but his father and that the family arrived as a convict's family at government expense. If this is so the records should provide definite evidence or at least reduce the field a lot.
Had a quick look around and found the site:-
//investigator.records.nsw.gov.au which describes a file NRS1190 - a list of convict applications and details of their families arriving from 1837 onwards. It is not on-line but on film held by the NSW authority - it did say where but I didn't note it, couldn't go there anyway.
Kellie do you see any chance of finding a researcher who could?
Cheers Denis

Hi Kate,,
I couldn't find anything positive in the 1895 QLD Electoral Rolls but in 1903 there is a
Thomas JONES (might be his son)a labourer, at 173 Alfred Street, Brisbane,,polling place Fortitude Valley.

also Thomas John JONES, Francis Street, Bulimba, Brisbane,,polling place Fortitude Valley..(a vanman)

This is way to late for Thomas,,,but at Bulimba Cemetery (just incase it fits with something else)
Ada NICKSON d.25 JUL 1959 aged 72years. My son our brother Thomas JONES 7th FEB 1967 aged 44yrs; also our mother and grandmother Nellie JONES 14th DEC 1977 aged 87yrs.

There are quite a few JONES at Bulimba but not all have inscriptions.
There are a few at Toowong,,but no dates suitable for your Thomas.

There are a heap of Thomas JONES that left wills etc 1859-1900...If you have the dates of the 3 you think may be him,,I might be able to narrow it down.

There are just so many of them.
Will see what other QLD stuff I have.

Kellie