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
Gaol inmates & prisoners guide
Find out what types of prison records are available and how to access them
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
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
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
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
WW1
Sensational car chase
John Talbot Wright was arrested on 11 September 1920 after a sensational car chase through city streets
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
Designing Your Local: Hotel Plans in the NSW State Archives Collection
Under the Sale of Liquor Act 1881, applications for liquor licences were submitted to the local Licensing Court for consideration. This Act required licensed premises to meet a minimum standard of accommodation.
‘Confused heaps’ and ‘systematic order’: Keeping records in 19th-century NSW
This webinar examines how records and the work of their keepers was organised and explore the material world of those ‘charged with the arrangement and care of Records’.
![Proceedings [Judge Advocate's Bench]](https://api.mhnsw.au/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.mhnsw.au%2Ffotoweb%2Fembed%2F2026%2F06%2F88bab2f0720643abbf5a7df92fb231a9.jpg&w=1920&h=400&fit=inside&format=webp)
On the Bench: Records of the Lower Courts of NSW
This webinar explores the bench books held in the NSW State Archives Collection. These wonderful volumes record the minutes of proceedings of various Benches of Magistrates as well as later Courts of Petty Sessions.
The Reinterment of Devonshire Street Cemetery
This webinar explores the records from the NSW State Archives Collection that reveal the history of one of Sydney’s oldest burial grounds and the mammoth job of reinterring those buried there to allow for the construction of Central Railway Station
Vernon and Sobraon: Nautical Training Ships for Boys
This webinar explores the stories of the inmates of the nautical training ships the Vernon and the Sobraon
The ‘Old Register’: Illuminating Early Colonial NSW
This webinar led by Dr Carol Liston AO, Adjunct Associate Professor in History at Western Sydney University explores the ‘Old Register’ and what it can tell us about early colonial NSW.
Faculty files
This webinar explores 19th-century teacher records held in the NSW State Archives Collection, making it possible to trace teachers’ careers from young trainees through to the established teachers they became
More Than a Name: NSW Naturalisation Records
This webinar showcases the various naturalisation records held, including original applications for naturalisation, and advises what you may be able to discover about your immigrant ancestors in the collection
Crown Plans revisited
Learn how you can start searching for, accessing, and understanding Crown plans and related records in the State Archives Collection
Ships, more ships, and still more ships
Featuring files, plans, and digitised content (NRS-21054), this webinar recording explores the records of the State Dockyard, Newcastle, held in the State Archives Collection