29 January 2010
Talkback: a convict in the family
Do you have a convict in your family? If you do, you probably come from good resilient stock. No longer something shameful, it's a matter of pride to discover your convict ancestry.
As family historians know, researching the convict in your family can lead to some fascinating and surprising discoveries.
But as we hear today it goes far beyond exploring colourful family history, tracing convicts and their descendants tells us much about modern Australia - about resilience, families, who makes it in society and who doesn't. It can even tell us about our population health today.
This morning we hear about an ambitious project called Founders and Survivors - one of the world's great studies into immigration following convicts and their descendants over five generations.
We're joined by two of the project leaders, convict historian Associate Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart from the University of Tasmania and Professor Janet McCalman from the University of Melbourne. Janet is especially interested in social and medical history.
Author and historian Babette Smith tells us about her convict ancestor, Susannah Watson, and we hear how to verify your convict ancestry from Laurice Cross, herself a descendant of five convicts.
Guests
Professor Janet McCalman
Historian, University of Melbourne
Associate Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart
Historian, University of Tasmania
Babette Smith
Author
Laurice Cross
Examiner of Proofs Descendants of Convicts' Group Inc.
Further Information
Publications
Title: Australia's Birthstain: the startling legacy of the convict era
Author: Babette Smith
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Title: A Cargo of Women: Susannah Watson & the convicts of the Princess Royal
Author: Babette Smith
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Presenter
Richard Aedy
Producer
Amanda Armstrong
Story Researcher and Producer
Amanda Armstrong
Sound engineer
Timothy Nicastri
Radio National often provides links to external websites to complement program information. While producers have taken care with all selections, we can neither endorse nor take final responsibility for the content of those sites.
