The National Archives of Ireland holds a wide range of records relating to the transportation of convicts from Ireland to Australia covering the period 1788 to 1868. In some cases these include records of members of convicts' families transported as free settlers.
To mark the Australian Bicentenary in 1988, the Taoiseach presented microfilms of the most important of these records to the Government and People of Australia as a gift from the Government and People of Ireland. A computerised index to the records was prepared with the help of IBM and is available for use at various locations in Australia.
While the collection of convict petitions dates from the beginning of transportation from Ireland to Australia in 1791, all transportation registers compiled before 1836 were destroyed in the Four Courts fire of June 1922. Therefore, if the person you are researching was convicted before 1836, but was not the subject of a petition, he or she will not appear on this database. In other words, the records from which the transportation database was compiled such as the transportation registers, convict reference files and petitions to government for pardon or commutation of sentence, are incomplete.
Online search
To search the transportation database, please click on the following link: Ireland-Australia transportation database