The Mad, The Bad and The Sad
Dr Rebecca Kippen’s public seminar titled “The Mad, The Bad & The Sad”: Life courses of women transported to Tasmania, attracted many community members, staff and other interested people. Rebecca was interviewed on ABC breakfast radio, which stimulated public interest.
Rebecca graduated with a PhD in Demography from the Australian National University in 2002 and currently holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in the Centre for Health and Society at the University of Melbourne. Her two main research projects are ‘Epidemics, mortality and longevity in Tasmania, 1838-1930’ and ‘Convicts and Diggers: a demography of life courses, families and generations’.
Her study of convict women in Tasmania from 1803 to 1930 follows their life courses, families and subsequent generations. Of particular interest was the life of one Anne Beckett. Meticulous details were recorded about each convict including description, character, marriage, birth and death, which made it possible to trace genealogy through the generations. Convicts were classed into the respectable and the rough, that is, those who behaved and those who didn’t. The rough may have been prostitutes, alcoholics, or thieves and likely to be of Scottish origin. Of interest is that a majority of the convicts were already known to police before transportation. Members of the public interested in following up their genealogy had plenty of questions for Rebecca at the end of her lecture.
‘Founders & Survivors is a partnership between historians, genealogists, demographers and population health researchers. It seeks to record and study the founding population of 73,000 men women and children who were transported to Tasmania.’
The Founders & Survivors newsletter is called ‘Chainletter’, which can be downloaded from the above site.