Genealogy Chat

tonight on BBC2 at 9pm Timewatch is about the Lady Juliana which set sail for Australia The first cargo of female prisoners destined for The Penal Colony in Sydney, maybe find some of our rellies were on it !!!!

Is that the one called the floating brothel??? sounds interesting!!! I guess with so many men being trandported they needed to balence things up a bit. ?With ladies of the night?

yes I believe thats the one should be interesting viewing.

Don't get too excited ladies ... the review says it's not 'raunchy'. However, sounds very interesting ... thanks Val for pointing it out! Regs Jane

is that true Lorraine blimey she nust have been er worn out

Yes must watch it. I think hubby said in the paper that a tenth or something of people in Sydney were descended from these people???

We (in NZ) have just had a programme on the Incredible life of Mary Bryant. She was one of the 'passengers' on the First Fleet to Australia. While the producers took some licence with the actual book on her life it is was a good story. Worth a look if you get the chance. Sylvia

Watched it, and slightly disappointed. It was a well-padded dramatisation of a handful of facts. These women were NOT sent out as prostitutes, but as criminals. The fact that they 'took their opportunities' seemed to me more a matter of expediency than of lives dedicated to prostitution. Apart from that, I got sidetracked, looking at their spotlessly clean clothes after a year at sea, and the well-fed men in the penal colony, who were supposedly starving to death but had nevertheless managed to build some very smart houses, all with several good coats of paint. If anyone else saw it, can you tell me what happened to the sheep, cattle and bags of seeds the original convicts took out with them? Why were they starving to death? Did I miss a bit? And, although we were told that the youngest convictr, Mary Wade, was the founding mother of Australia, having over 300 living descendants when she died, we were told NOTHING about her life. Miserable Olde Crone!

I thought the lady vicar was good. She had a great sense of humour and took it all in good part. I bet she gets some teasing from her parishioners - or maybe not because they are all probably descended from convicts too! ;-) What about Mary Wade who was to hang for her crime? Bit harsh to even consider putting a child to death for stealing some clothes! Cheers, Horatia

I missed this - does anyone know if this is going to be repeated?

I though it was a bit slow but quite interesting, it must have been terrible in Newgate Prison, and its strange how we have gone from being too harsh on crime to being much too soft.we need to go back a little way , and maybe ship really bad people out away from everybody.