According to Ancestry, one in five Australians descend from convicts. But despite Australia’s strong connection to convicts and their stories, it wasn’t very long ago that people were ashamed of their convict ancestry; for most Australian families, there would have been nothing worse than finding out that your ancestors were convicts.
These perceptions have certainly changed, however, particularly as information has become available on the types of crimes committed by transported convicts. While some were political protesters, many were just petty thieves who needed to steal to survive the harsh conditions of the time. The stories of penal colonies and their convicts are now considered a fundamental part of the Australian story, and the histories
