Census returns and alternatives – Australia - Tasmania (General)

by Minmatilda, Wednesday, July 08, 2009, 02:28 (5691 days ago) @ Lawrencef

Census returns and alternatives – Australia - Tasmania

Censuses
For anyone who is researching ancestors in Tasmania, there are incomplete census records remaining for 1837, 1838, 1842, 1843, 1848, 1851, and 1857. The indexes can be searched at the Tasmanian Archives website - at Name Indexes - although the actual documents are not online. http://www.archives.tas.gov.au/

The information includes the name of the householder; place of residence of the house owner, the name of the head of the house, whether the house was built of stone, brick, or of wood, how many persons generally resided there; and the number of these persons who were free (as distinct from convict) but unfortunately does not record all individuals’ names.

The returns also include a statistical form showing the age range, sex, religion, occupation, civil condition and trade of the persons residing in the house.

Musters
There are also other official census-like documents that are useful sources of information, such as the various “musters” of inhabitants of NSW and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) e.g
Hobart Town Musters of 1822 which give name, year of arrival in colony & ship’s name, where/when tried if a convict, and number of children.
A Land and Stock Muster of 1819 gives the names of anyone who owned or rented land &/or owned livestock in Tasmania – it includes how many horses, sheep, cattle were owned by each person, how many acres they had of wheat, barley, potatoes or pasture, whether they had wives/children.

If you can get hold of it the best reference is probably Irene Schaffer’s “Land Musters and Stock Returns and Lists Van Diemen’s Land 1803-1822”. It’s available as a CD.

Convict Records
And of course if you are researching a Tasmanian convict, you can get details of work assignments, conduct, even descriptions of height, build, hair colour, tattoos etc. as well as the names and place of residence of family members. The later the date of transportation, the more information is available. Most of these documents are online through the Tasmanian Archives website.