Convicts sent to Australia are put online

More than 42,000 records of British convicts who were transported to Australia in the 19th century were due to be published online for the first time yesterday.

Family history website Ancestry.co.uk said the new details, including parole documents granting freedom to UK convicts, add to a collection of more than 2.3 million criminal and convict records.

Ancestry's International content director Dan Jones said: "The new records are a wonderful addition to our ever-growing collection of criminal records, which currently detail more than 2.3 million Australian convict stories, from arrest to release."

Details listed include the name of the ship each convict arrived on, the year of arrival, profession, date and place of trial and who recommended them for release. The records include details of Joseph Backler, a British artist who was sentenced to death for forging cheques in 1831 before his conviction was commuted to transportation.