By Chris Sutton

Since its release in August 2022, family historians and readers in the UK have discovered Finding Ned.

A valuable guide to tracing a convict ancestor through the Australian records, the book is also an insight into how convicts fared after they received a conditional pardon. 

Unable to return to England, they were forced to create a life for themselves in a strange and often hostile land. Like the British immigrants of the 1850s to 1960s, they built their homes, earned a living, worked hard and made good. Well, some of them did. It was not that easy.