Back on 1 January this year I set out 10 Genealogy Goals for 2015, a family historian’s ‘New Year’s Resolutions’. “What could possibly go wrong?” I asked (being all too aware of the reasons why I usually refrain from making grand plans). In the event, for the most part things did not go horribly wrong, and I am claiming a success rate… Read more »
A fascinating glimpse into the lives of Atcherley family members across England on the eve of the Second World War has been provided by the release, on Monday, of the 1939 Register. Available at Findmypast, in partnership with The National Archives (TNA), the register is a unique and valuable record. Gathering less information than a census, but more than an… Read more »
< Back to Part 6 Released early from a 14 year stretch on Norfolk Island, which had itself replaced a sentence of death, Robert Atcherley Taylor [] returned to Tasmania. His many months of good work as a convict-chaplain, which had won him his freedom, also served to prepare him for life on the outside. He was ready to go straight…. Read more »
< Back to Part 5 A death sentence would, in most cases, bring a person’s life story to a rather unpleasant end – but not in the case of Robert Atcherley Taylor! [] The judgement of death initially recorded following Robert’s conviction in Sydney for “obtaining money under false pretences” was not carried out. Instead, his sentence was “Commuted to 14… Read more »
< Back to Part 4 TWO DOLLARS REWARD, for the Apprehension of a MAN who goes by the Name of PARSON TAYLOR; he stands about 6 feet high; having swindled from the undersigned, a Pair of Trowsers and Stockings, THOMAS WATKINS, Kent-street. — The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 5 Dec 1825. There could only be one man… Read more »
< Back to Part 3 Robert Taylor was placed at the bar, charged with obtaining money under false pretences … The Honourable the Judge Advocate remarked, with much energy, upon the extraordinary effrontery with which the fraud had been effected, under circumstances from which it was impossible the prisoner could have escaped justice; and upon a very short consultation of… Read more »