Goulburn's early convict histories illuminated by historic 1828 census
Posted
![Judith Nelson Judith Nelson](http://web.archive.org./web/20190602202946im_/https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/11145902-3x2-700x467.jpg)
As a descendant of a renowned stained glass artist, Judith Nelson is used to being asked questions about her family history.
John Radecki designed the decal for a number of Sydney and regional churches and buildings, and Ms Nelson has given many talks on her famous connections.
But learning she had convict links on the other side was a surprise.
"There was a big emphasis in my family on the Polish side and I wondered why the other part wasn't being spoken about," she said.
Ms Nelson only recently discovered her great-great-grandfather and great-uncle, John and Francis Feltis, came to Goulburn in 1826 as convicts on seven-year sentences for rustling sheep.
They were both listed on the first Australian census of 1828, which was recently brought to Goulburn on a tour of a number of Australia's first colonised cities.
The document has just been transcribed for the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World register.
"I'm not embarrassed being a [convict] descendant," Ms Nelson said.
"There's plenty of us around who are, and I think they had the better end of the deal from the sound of it. They came to a country that gave them a better life."
From notoriety to a new home
Garry White is another Goulburn resident with what he describes as "interesting" roots.
He is a descendant of Thomas Godfrey, another convict who was sent to Australia on a seven-year sentence for stealing poultry.
![Gary White and Wendy Gallagher Gary White and Wendy Gallagher](http://web.archive.org./web/20190602202946im_/https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/11146974-3x2-700x467.jpg)
Godfrey was recorded in Goulburn Plains at the time of the 1828 census, by then in possession of a certificate of freedom.
But eight years later he was convicted of another crime, this time receiving stolen cattle, and sent to Norfolk Island on a 14-year sentence, Mr White said.
Upon release for good behaviour in 1842, Godfrey came back to Goulburn and was reunited with his wife who had moved on and had children with another man while he was away.
For Mr White, his tale is one of strength and resilience.
"He worked hard and he got knocked back. When he was sent to Norfolk Island he came back and started again," Mr White said.
Humble beginnings
State Archives historian Wendy Gallagher said Goulburn now has a population of about 36,500 people, roughly the same population as recorded on the 1828 Census.
She said there were only a few people recorded in what is now know as the Goulburn city limits on the 1828 record.
"There's probably about 10 people in what's the settlement of Goulburn, and of those there's a police constable, his wife and four children. So it's really quite small," she said.
![census census](http://web.archive.org./web/20190602202946im_/https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/11147256-3x2-700x467.jpg)
But there are also early signs of a growing region.
"Across the Goulburn Plains, there are starting to be settlers taking up large areas of land and starting to develop what were to be really quite large properties," Ms Gallagher said.
"It was really an agricultural area with some support industries — shoemakers, for instance, on some of the large properties."
"It tells you that there are really centres of commerce like Goulburn that are starting to develop outside of Sydney.
"There are people that are just going about the sorts of lives that we live today, even though some of them would have been transported as convicts."
But the census does not tell the full picture of Australia's population, Ms Gallagher said.
"It doesn't show any of the Indigenous people at the time and that really tells you something about society at that point — that there was a bigger divide between the Aboriginal people and the settlers."
Topics: historians, history, community-and-society, law-crime-and-justice, family-and-children, goulburn-2580, emu-plains-2750, nsw, australia