New Webinars from State Archives.

NSW STATE ARCHIVES have started a series of webinars.  The first one of the program was this week, "Using the State Archives Website".  Its up on line for anyone to review now  Just click here.
Put together by State Archives staff, it was very informative, and included some tricks and tips to make researching easier.

To register for upcoming webinars just click here!  This one on tracing convict ancestors should be interesting as the State Archives has lots of records.

I recently found more convicts in my tree, Solomon and James Rueben were convicted in 1831.  Solomon of assault with intent to rob, life;  James of larceny, 7 years.  More interesting was Solomon Rueben's occupation, he was a light weight boxer.  He and another boxer, William Rowley, along with another 3 men, made an attempt at highway robbery.  The picked on the wrong person however, Samuel Cooper who was a prosecutor, a police Sergeant came along and caught them red handed.  They spent some time on Prison Hulks at Portsmouth and were then transported to Sydney.

Solomon married Elizabeth Turner and had 2 children, he came to a very sad end however. According to the inquest he had been suffering from "erysipelas in the face" (a bacterial infection) and had showed symptoms of insanity. On the Thursday evening he became quite insane and got out of his bedroom window.  Witnesses saw him and asked him where he was going, his reply was that "he was going to wash his feet in the water".  It seems he jumped into a watering hole and drowned.  Elizabeth married twice again and had 3 more children.  

What became of James Rueben is unclear, just 16 when he was convicted, I have found no records of his life in Australia other than his convict indent.  Nothing in Trove, nothing on Ancestry, nothing in NSW records.   On the indent it indicates that Solomon was sent to Chief Justice Forbes to work, and James to J.D. Wood, Pitt Town. So more research needed!