Cousin Jack

Convicts, Tasmania, Van Dieman's Land

Currency lads and lasses

The first generation of children born of convicts in the Australian colony were called 'currency lads and lasses' to distinguish them from the free settlers (Sterlings) who were born in the British Isles. Tasmanians have played down the achievements of…
Van Dieman's Land

The Anson

My maternal 2nd great grandmother, Bess, received a death sentence in the Old Bailey. At length, her sentence was commuted to transportation for life. On arrival in Sullivan’s Cove in Hobart Town, she was taken to the prison hulk The…

I was born a stranger in a land down under Downunder, a descendant of generations of Cornish miners and thousands of years of Celtic culture.
This history was lost to me until recently and has become something of an obsession. I’ve been delving into matters ancestral for a while now, researching both ends of the mystery of how I came to be born and raised at the far end of the antipodes.

It’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from there.
As I research, I come across all kinds of interesting snippets, thoughts and ideas. One of which is to make a page to share some of them with a broader audience.

I’m a Cousin Jack.