Tell me everything you know about the ancestors of Australians being criminals f

Question: Tell me everything you know about the ancestors of Australians being criminals from Europe!!?

No offence to Australians! Just that I want to know the full history!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Well, for starters most of us have no convict ancestry, and those who do are very proud of their convict background!.
My ancesters were free settlers, farmers, from Denmark and Ireland and miners from Cornwall!.
My husband's family were free settlers, miners, from Wales and England!.
Most of the convicts were transported for petty crimes such as stealing a handkerchief or a loaf of bread etc!. Those criminals who had committed more serious crimes were usually hanged in Britain!.

Transportation!.
When the last shipment of convicts disembarked in Western Australia in 1868, the total number of transported convicts stood at around 162,000 men and women!. They were transported here on 806 ships!.

The transportation of convicts to Australia ended at a time when the colonies' population stood at around one million, compared to 30,000 in 1821!. By the mid-1800s there were enough people here to take on the work, and enough people who needed the work!. The colonies could therefore sustain themselves and continue to grow!. The convicts had served their purpose!.

Who were the convicts!?

While the vast majority of the convicts to Australia were English and Welsh (70%), Irish (24%) or Scottish (5%), the convict population had a multicultural flavour!. Some convicts had been sent from various British outposts such as India and Canada!. There were also Maoris from New Zealand, Chinese from Hong Kong and slaves from the Caribbean!.

A large number of soldiers were transported for crimes such as mutiny, desertion and insubordination!. Australia's first bushranger - John Caesar - sentenced at Maidstone, Kent in 1785 was born in the West Indies!.

Most of the convicts were thieves who had been convicted in the great cities of England!. Only those sentenced in Ireland were likely to have been convicted of rural crimes!. Transportation was an integral part of the English and Irish systems of punishment!. It was a way to deal with increased poverty and the severity of the sentences for larceny!. Simple larceny, or robbery, could mean transportation for seven years!. Compound larceny - stealing goods worth more than a shilling (about $50 in today's money) - meant death by hanging!.

Men had usually been before the courts a few times before being transported, whereas women were more likely to be transported for a first offence!. The great majority of convicts were working men and women with a range of skills!.

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The first people from the UK were transported criminals however in many cases the crime was stealing a loaf of bread or something similar!. Most Australians today cannot trace their families to the original settlers!. In fact, one in four Aussies here in Australia at present were born overseas and are representative of most countries of the world!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Well since England didn't have enough space for all the criminals they transported them to America!. And then America declared independence so Britain transported their convicts to Australia!. They were put in jail and when they were free they had a choice of staying in Australia or going back to England!. A lot of the convicts chose to stay in Australia because they thought that if they went back to Britain they would still have the word 'criminal' around them!. And some of the convicts wanted to start a new life!. And anyway they weren't fully like HUGE criminal's!. They were arrested for like stealing a slice of bread or something!.

Oh and i think England arrested a lot of people because the population in there was too high and they couldn't controlll it so they just transported people who did really small tiny crimes to other countries!.

(I'm not completely sure about the last part)

Hope this helped =)Www@QuestionHome@Com

Well a few dozen boats of criminals came out here in the first fleets of settlers, and Australia was founded as a penal colony, however criminals back then often were deported for as little as stealing a loaf of bread to feed their starving families!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Go do your own homework!.Www@QuestionHome@Com