Transportation to Australia

Transportation to Australia

Tuesday 21 July, 14:00 - 15:00

Over 162,000 British and Irish convicts were transported to Australia between 1787 and 1868.  This talk explores the reasons behind the policy of transportation and looks at the experiences of the people who were shipped across the seas, using case studies from the archives.

Roger Kershaw joined The National Archives in 1986 and is now the Head of Records Knowledge for the Advice and Records Knowledge department. He has over 20 years experience in researching records at Kew and other archives and has published five books: Immigrants and Aliens - a guide to sources on UK immigration and citizenship (2000 and 2004), Emigrants and Expats - a guide to sources on UK emigration and residents overseas (2002), Family History on the Move (2006), New Lives for Old - The Story of Britain's Child Migrants (2008), and Migration Records (2009). He is also a member of the Ancestors editorial board - The National Archives' family history magazine - to which he submits articles regularly.
 
He also appears regularly at British genealogy fairs promoting The National Archives and has previously presented international papers at the USA NGS Conference in Portland in 2001; the FGS Conference in Boston in 2006, and Philadelphia in 2008; the 10th and 11th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry in Melbourne (2003) and Darwin (2006); and events at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in 2001 and 2002.

This is a free event. Tickets will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis on the day and cannot be booked in advance.

You can listen to previous talks given at The National Archives on our Podcast page.