Search our website and collections

Go direct to State Archives online indexesGo direct to State Archives catalogue

Tracing NSW gaol inmates

Researching criminal offenders in the State Archives Collection

Gaol records can provide so much detail about your ancestors – where they came from, what they looked like and some of the things they did. In this webinar we show you how to use the State Archives collection to trace your ancestors through the NSW prison system, uncovering their crimes and incarcerations.

Chapters

0:00 Introduction

0:31 Administrative and historical overview

2:54 Useful definitions and abbreviations

5:20 Typical Gaol inmate records

5:46 Entrance books

8:23 Description books

9:48 Entrance & description books

10:57 Discharge books

12:05 Photographic description books/sheets

16:50 Prisoner cards

20:52 Miscellaneous Gaol records

25:43 How do you know when/where someone was incarcerated?

30:12 Searching for Gaol records in the NSW State Archives Collection

34:36 Further records

Related

No. 659 Matilda ‘Tilly’ Devine. Photographed 27 May 1925, State Reformatory for Women, Long Bay. Gaol photograph, Prisoner photographic index

Gaol inmates & prisoners guide

Find out what types of prison records are available and how to access them

Gaol photograph of A. G. Scott, alias Captain Moonlight

Gaol inmates & prisoners photos index 1870-1930

Search over 52,000 mugshots from NSW prisons. Alongside the photos are details such as name, aliases, native place, year of birth, details of arrival in the colony, occupation, physical description, marks or special features, where and when tried, offence, and sentence

Mugshot of Lottie May Little, 1917

Gaol photographs

We have indexed and digitised this collection of photographs of men, women and children who were incarcerated in the NSW prison system c1870–c1930

Crime stories

Mugshot of an elderly woman on a gaol admission form

Margaret Greenwood: a life of crime

This 1875 record contains a rare and revealing photograph of a former Imperial convict, a prisoner again in her old age

Gaol photo of Arthur Astill

Captured: Portraits of Crime, Arthur Astill

Arthur Astill, a 16 year old labourer from Orange in central west NSW, was photographed at Dubbo Gaol on 24 January 1893 while awaiting trial for murder

Full length police photo of man in suit and hat, standing in front of chair.
WW1

Sensational car chase

John Talbot Wright was arrested on 11 September 1920 after a sensational car chase through city streets

Two photos side by side, first showing seated man, second showing man standing, with hat on.
WW1

Returned from active service

In July 1921 James Arthur Banfield was arrested by Sydney police, photographed and charged on three counts of larceny

Latest webinars

Acquisition of the John and Phyllis Murphy wallpaper collection

Murphy Wallpaper Collection

The recent donation to the Caroline Simpson Library of thousands of wallpapers in the John and Phyllis Murphy Collection means that Museums of History NSW now has the largest holding of historical wallpapers in Australia

Settlers' Muster Book, 1800

Settlers’ Muster Book, 1800

This webinar led by Dr Carol Liston AO, Adjunct Associate Professor in History at Western Sydney University, explores the contents of the Settlers’ Muster Book 1800

General dining room, Liverpool Asylum 1911. Government Printing Office 1-34395

The records of Liverpool Asylum

This webinar explores the records of the Liverpool Asylum for the Infirm and Destitute (1862-1933) and was later known as the Liverpool State Hospital and Home (1933-1961)

Government Printing Office; NRS 4481, Glass negatives NRS-4481-4-161-[AF00198139] Agricultural College Boys [Department of Agriculture] [no date]

Raising the Farmer

Explore with us some of the 6,000 unique and beautiful glass negatives taken to illustrate articles in the Agricultural Gazette of NSW – now digitally available on our website, a unique slice of rural life

Government Printing Office; NRS 4481, Glass negatives. NRS-4481-3-[7/15883]-M2439 | Government Printing Office 1 - 30700 - Supreme Court, King and Elizabeth Streets, Sydney [From NSW Government Printer series: City Views]

Equity Court records

Since 1823 the Equity Jurisdiction has dealt with matters of fairness and the enforcing of rights not recognised at Common Law

The Lord's Prayer - Religious tract written in an Aboriginal language 1836

First Nations Community Access to Archives

Join the First Nations Community Access to Archives project team in deep listening to learn about the journey of storytelling, truth-telling and language revitalisation

Government Printing Office 1 - 02086 - Oyster bed [From NSW Government Printer series: Ballina], 1926

Oyster culture leases files

The government started to encourage oyster fisheries from 1868 and later introduced oyster leases. This webinar focuses on our series of NRS-1302 Oyster cultures leases files, which tell the stories of the people who held these leases between 1920 and 1978

Portrait of a man

Colonial Secretary's minutes, 1826-1927

A deep dive into the minutes, highlighting how these documents that dealt with Government policy, detailed plans and proposals also captured the lives of individual people, and how to find them

Top half of a page from an inquest file titled 'Inquisition before Coroner sitting alone'

Using the inquest index

Now with surviving inquest papers from 1916-1939 and April–December 1963 (Glebe Coroners Court), this webinar shows you how to use the inquest index and explore the new additions

Students and teacher in front of an old school house

Married women teachers declarations

These records are digitised and available to search and view in our catalogue. This webinar explores the declarations, why they were required and how to find them.