About

This website is the initiative of the Newcastle Family History Society Inc. whose members began working on the publication They Sent Me North: Female Convicts in the Hunter in 2016. This work was a follow-on from the 2005 publication Early Newcastle: The Fettered and the Free which traced those who had come to Newcastle from the very earliest days of European settlement until it ceased to be a place of secondary transportation in December 1823. Early Newcastle traced both convicts, male and female, as well as those who arrived free.

Nobbys Island 1820

Nobby’s Island and pier, Newcastle, January 23rd, 1820 / [watercolour by unknown artist]
NSW State Library Digital Collection

At the NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies Inc. State Conference in September 2017, Dr Christina Henri was a keynote speaker. Her initiative, Roses From the Heart, was also adopted to run in conjunction with the researching of our publication. In this way the NFHS could ensure that every female convict who came to the Hunter Valley was remembered in a very special way – by having a bonnet tribute made by either a descendant or a member of our Society.

You can find out more about the Roses of the Heart project and They Sent Me North by going to this Hunter Living Histories article.