Thursday 23 January 2014

Relaunch of the Claim A Convict website

I have been remiss in my blogging duties over the last month due to a more pressing assignment the relaunch of the Claim A Convict website.

Background

Started by researcher Lesley Uebel, the Claim a Convict website originally went online on 19 August 1998. The site offered other researchers a free service that enabled those researching the same convicts ancestors to contact each other directly by email. Although the site did not include every convict that arrived, the researcher lists provided an invaluable resource to the research community. Unfortunately Lesley fell ill during the second half of 2013, passing away on 20 January 2014.

It was during the later part of 2013 when Lesley's website was no longer active, a small team of individuals set about to get the website back online. With the help of Lesley's husband, Colin Kennedy, and friend, Coralie Hird, the original website files were found and sent onto the new Claim A Convict team of Michelle Nichols and myself. At the beginning of 2014 the data contained on the original website files (created from Word) was converted into a more manageable format and a new SQL database driven interface was designed for the site.

New website URL

The URL for the site that will be launched on Australia Day at 1am is http://claimaconvict.hawkesbury.net.au/.  At the moment the link only shows a countdown to the launch time.

How the website looked this afternoon with the countdown timer

How does this fit into Auld Genealogy?

I had to rack my head around this one as there are no Aulds currently listed, but alas I did find mention of a Robert Auld who was convicted in Edinburgh for 7 years transportation. He apparently arrived into Port Jackson (Sydney) onboard the Susan (1) during 1834.

One of my aims for the new Claim A Convict website is to have a feature so that contributors to the site can assist and help find Lost Convicts...Robert Auld being one of those lost convicts and hence I am nowing blogging as such.

Happy hunting for your convict relatives.

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