Colonial Secretary indexing procedures

• Colonial Secretary Home

• Basic Arrangement

• Arrangement of entries relating to individuals

• Cross references

• Spelling of names

• Format of entries

• Ships

• Dating

• Subject indexing

Basic Arrangement

The Index is arranged on a word by word basis. Hence a space will take precedence to a letter, for example:

DE MESTRE, Prosper

DE PRATA, Francisco

DE ROCHES, Charles

DE TRE, Benedict

DEA, Thomas

DEACON, Isaac

For a particular word, the order is:

Ships of that name; 

Places/subjects; and 

Individuals, for example:

                "RICHMOND". Convict transport

                RICHMOND see also HAWKESBURY DISTRICT

                RICHMOND

                RICHMOND, Magistrates

                RICHMOND, Watch House

                RICHMOND, George

                RICHMOND, John

                RICHMOND HILL

                RICHMOND ROAD

    or

                NEW, Edward

                 NEW LIGHT. Public House in Kent Street

                NEW NORFOLK, Van Diemen's Land

                NEW SOUTH WALES ALMANAC

                NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS see ONE HUNDRED AND SECOND

                                (102nd) REGIMENT

                NEW SOUTH WALES NEW ZEALAND COMPANY

                NEW ZEALAND see also various references

                NEW ZEALAND

                NEW ZEALAND, Bay of Islands

                NEW ZEALAND, Wangaroa Harbour

                "NEW ZEALANDER"

                NEW ZEALANDER. Public House in Sydney

                NEWBERRY, Catherine

                NEWBY, Mary

Arrangement of entries relating to Individuals

The entries for individuals are arranged in groups under each surname as follows:

• Cross reference to variant spellings of that surname

• Surname without any descriptor

• Surname with title eg. Dr, Messrs, Miss, Mr, Mrs

• Surname with forenames in alphabetical order, in two sequences under each forename

1. Free persons, and convicts where ship is not known, arranged chronologically by the date of the first entry; and

2. Convicts, arranged alphabetically by ship of arrival.

The entries in 1) are preceded by the undated entries although in cases where the date could be reliably estimated, the entries have been placed where they probably belong.

If only an initial is given, these entries precede the forenames beginning with that letter.

Names that have been arranged by the first forename only on the basis that second names are frequently unknown to researchers. Hence a 'Richard John' would be in the same sequence as 'Richard'. The only exception to this is 'Mary Ann(e)' which has been treated as a single name.

Surnames beginning with 'Mac' or 'Mc' are in one sequence before 'MAD', and are preceded by entries beginning with 'MAA' and 'MAB'.

'St' has been treated as 'Saint' and alphabetised accordingly.

Where it has not been possible to distinguish between all persons of the same name, occasionally a combined entry has been made, for example:

                SMITH, John. Not fully identified. More than one person

                UNDERWOOD, J. Not fully identified; could be either James or Joseph

Every care has been taken to keep all entries relating to the same person together, but identification was frequently difficult or impossible and decisions had to be made on the basis of the evidence available. It is possible that entries relating to two or more different people are listed together under the one name and conversely, that entries relating to particular individuals are dispersed.

Cross references

A great many, but not exhaustive, number of cross-references to subjects have been made.

With respect to individuals, in general, only cross-references between variant spellings of surnames have been made at the beginning of entries for that name, for example:

              BURNE see also BURN; BURNES; BURNS; BYRNE; BYRNES

                NEALE see alos NEAL; NEIL; NEILLE; NIEL; O'NEAL; O'NEALE;

                            O'NEILL; O'NEILL

Hence users should check the beginning of entries for a particular surname for variant spellings, and also for entries where a forename is not given.

Cross-references have been made between the married and maiden name of individual women, where these were known.

Aliases have in most cases been cross-referenced.

Spelling of names

The spelling of the names of many convicts, but not all, have been verified against the Convict Indents. Either the Indent spelling or the most commonly used spelling of a name has then been adopted.

Cross references between variant spellings of surnames appear at the beginning of the entries for that surname (see examples above)

Within an entry, the spelling as it appears on the particular document is generally used. For example, the spelling 'Surrey' has been chosen for the headings relating to the ships of that name, but the spelling 'Surry' will frequently appear within entries.

Format of entries

A typical entry for a convict is:

               MENSLOWE,  John. Per "Duke of Portland", 1807

                1813 Nov 6     Received certificate of freedom. To be struck off
                                         victualling list; appears as Muntzler (Reel 6002;
                                         4/3491 p. 591)

or for a person free on arrival:

             EALES, John.  came free per "Francis", 1823; settler in the Hunter's River district

                1823 Sep 3,     Request for a statement of the number of convicts he
                                          could support off the Stores for a grant of land in
                                          proportion to his means (Reel 6011; 4/3509 p.178); 

                Oct 7                Eales' reply (Fiche 3063; 4/1834B No. 98 p.601); to
                                          be granted 2,000 acres of land and six convict 
                                          servants to be assigned to him (Reel 6011; 4/2509
                                          p.379)

The components are usually the same: surname, forename, ship of arrival, other identifying information, date of entry, precis of contents, any variant spelling of name in entry and, in brackets, reference to the Index's Reel number or Fiche number, together with the location of the original item in State Records and page number.

Ships

It has not been possible to check the ship of arrival of every individual. Generally the information given in a particular document has been assumed to be correct unless proved to the contrary from other sources.

The names of ships are given in quotation marks, for example "Integrity". If the type of ship is known, such as brig, cutter etc, this is indicated. However, generally all entries relating to vessels of a particular name are merged without an attempt having been made to identify different ships.

Dating

The date of an undated document within the papers for a particular year, has been assumed to be the same as the others in the bundle, if there was no proof to the contrary.

Subject indexing

The approach of the Index is primarily a personal one, concentrating on the early inhabitants of our nation - the convicts, settlers, indigenous Australians and colonial officials. However, the Index does contain many entries relating to ships, subjects, towns and localities. These should be of value to researchers despite their limitations but the best results will probably be obtained by checking the entries for people who would have been involved in a particular activity.

Colonial Secretary Home