How to Research Pre-Revolutionary War Ancestors

Was Your Ancestor a Criminal?

If your ancestor was an early sailor pirate, or convict, you may be able to find them in the Admiralty Records of England or the Vice-Admiralty Records of Maryland (1694), New York (which included Connecticut and New Jersey) and South Carolina (1697), Pennsylvania (which included Delaware) and Virginia (1697/8) which included early North Carolina), Massachusetts (1699), New Hampshire (1704), Rhode Island (1716), North Carolina (1729), and Georgia (1754).
 

What are Admiralty Courts?

If your ancestor was a convict laborer, you may find records in the USA Vice-Admiralty courts and be able to trace the related court cases to the High Admiralty courts. The High Court of Admiralty in England created vice-admiralty courts in the colonies. In the colonial era, Vice-admiralty Courts were juryless courts that addressed criminal and noncriminal maritime issues. Your ancestor may have been a British Convict that was sent to America as a convict laborer in lieu of serving in overly-crowded British prisons. 

Inexpensive convict laborers are rarely spoken of in the USA.  However, between 1718 and 1775 there were approximately 52,200 convicts who sailed for the American colonies as allowed by the Transportation Act of 1718.  At a3Genealogy we particularly favor these court cases when seeking southern ensconced colonial-ancestors. We have found cases covering petty sailor salary issues to severe piracy court cases. 

Look in Virginia for early North Carolina Ancestors

Virginia, alone, hosted more than 20,000 convicts - many worked in the tobacco fields. Commonly, British felons served for seven years (up to fourteen), however unlike indentured servants, they did not receive payment at the end of their service.

The Vice-admiralty Court of Virginia had jurisdiction also over North Carolina. However be sure to also scour the Vice-Admiralty Court of Royal NC 1729-1759.

  

6 Tips to Uncovering Pre-Revolutionary Convict Ancestors

Often genealogists become interested in this research when they have traced ancestors to the colonies by the Revolutionary War.  Yet, not much is known pre-Revolutionary war. The question is “from whence did they come?” So let’s first just see if we can find them as a convict, and don't forget the women!  

We know women were also sent to the colonies as convicts. Well known female pirate Mary Harvey was sent to North Carolina for piracy. Her records can be located in Virginia. Other females were sent to American colonies for being lewd or late street walking (after ten).  

Here are tips to begin your research:

1)     Convict Transportation Contracts / Records. Ancestry.com has digitized the Middlesex, England, Convict Transportation Contracts, 1682-1787; and Dorset, England, Convict Transportation Records, 1724-1791. Researchers will find their ancestor’s names, crime and the punishment for their crime.  These records may also specify where they were placed in America (or British Colony in Africa).

2)     Review State Archives for early court records.  The salvaged Maryland colonial courts records may be located at the Hall of Records at Annapolis (see the Maryland Historical Society Archives of Maryland).

3)      Extant Colonial Records:

·         New Hampshire's Secretary Waldron saved seven featherbeds and most of the records when his house burned in 1736.

·         Massachusetts fire in 1747 destroyed a portion of that colony's records

·         Rhode Island part of the town records of Newport and Providence had been burned

·         New York suffered two fires that destroyed public records during the colonial period.

·         New Jersey had an archival fire that took place in 1686

·         North Carolina reported no loss of records when its State House burned in 1831

·         South Carolina acknowledged loss of records in the secretary's office fire of 1698

·         Georgia reported only the Yazoo Act destroyed by fire

·         Virginia's archives were partially burned during the Revolution while stored, at Benedict Arnold's order, in a Westham public building containing war material.

·         Maryland see the Historical Society Archives of Maryland

4)     Vice Admiralty Court Records: These may be a little harder to uncover. For Virginia and North Carolina review the Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia.  

5)      Academic Papers and Dissertations and Books:  If your convict was a pirate, a woman, or infamous, many have been researched and cited in academic papers.

6)     Newspapers.  Although they usually lack details, newspaper notices provide hints. The Virginia Gazette published notices of trials and advertisements of sales by the vice-admiralty court decrees.

Linking British Records

If your ancestor was sent to America, there must have been a court reason in Britain.  Be sure to review the High Court Admiralty (HCA) records held at the UK National Archives. 

• Proceedings of Vice-Admiralty courts in North America, the West Indies and Africa  are held in HCA 1/99. Included are proceedings from courts in New York, 1724, Rhode Island, 1725, Williamsburg, 1727, 1729, Philadelphia, 1731, South Carolina, 1733-1734, the Bahamas, 1722, Barbados, 1734, Jamaica, 1738-1739, India (Fort St George and Bombay), 1725, 1730, and Africa, 1722, 1734, 1737. 
• Earlier in New York, 1777 to 1783: the High Court of Admiralty: Vice -Admiralty Courts proceedings can be found in HCA 49.  This collection also is the repository for various colonies in Africa.

Kathleen Brandt

a3Genealogy@gmail.com

Accurate, accessible answers

How to Research Pre-Revolutionary War Ancestors

Excerpt: How to Research Pre-Revolutionary War Ancestors, 2016

Finding Family Before 1776
When genealogists hit the colonial period, many suddenly feel the trail goes cold. There is no 1easy civil registration. Few family stories survive. Records may be scattered, damaged, or hidden in places researchers never think to look. But your ancestor did not appear in America in 1776.

They lived, worked, married, bought land, went to court, paid taxes, served apprenticeships, worshipped, migrated, and sometimes got into trouble long before the Revolutionary War. The key is learning where early lives were documented.

So where were they documented?
For pre-Revolutionary ancestors, success often comes from looking beyond birth, marriage, and death records. Here are 12 record sets, the basics that should be reviewed if extant:

1. land grants and deeds
2. tax lists
3. church registers
4. probate files
5. petitions
6. militia lists
7. shipping records
8. indenture contracts
9. apprenticeship records
10. court minutes
11. merchant account books
12. newspapers
13. cemetery and churchyard records

Was Your Ancestor a Sailor, Pirate, Merchant, or Convict?

When genealogists hit the colonial period, many suddenly feel the trail goes cold. Have you considered that your ancestor may have gotten into trouble long before the Revolutionary War?

One overlooked source for colonial-era research is maritime court records. If your ancestor worked at sea, traded goods, was accused of piracy, transported cargo, or arrived as a convict laborer, records may appear in British Admiralty or colonial Vice-Admiralty courts.

Check out the Proceedings of Vice-Admiralty courts in North America, the West Indies and Africa.

These courts handled maritime disputes, seizures, wages, smuggling, and other sea-related matters across the colonies. Colonial vice-admiralty courts existed in several regions, and jurisdiction sometimes crossed colony lines.

That means an ancestor living in one colony may appear in records held elsewhere.

Unexpected Women
Don't forget the women. They were not so squeaky clean. Women appear in colonial records more often than many assume.

Check out these 9 record sets:

1. widow petitions
2. dower claims
3. probate distributions
4. church discipline cases
5. guardianship records
6. poor relief requests
7. newspaper notices
8. runaway servant advertisements
9. court complaints and testimony

Reminder: A woman may be the key to proving an entire family line.

Smart Tip: 

Remember that podcast on One Place Studies? This is a perfect chance to research by the community, not just name. If records are sparse, study the community.

Ask:

• Who were the neighbors?
• Who witnessed deeds?
• Who appeared in the same tax district?
• Who married into the family?
• What church served the area?
• What migration route did families use?

Sometimes your ancestor is hiding inside the records of relatives, neighbors, or associates.

7 Smart Places to Search Pre-1776 Ancestors
1. State Archives
Many colonial court, land, and legislative records are preserved at the state level.

2. County Courthouses
Especially for deeds, probate, and local court minutes.

 
3. Historical Societies

Local collections may contain manuscripts, family papers, maps, and cemetery transcriptions.

 
4. University Libraries
Many hold digitized colonial collections and regional papers.

 
5. British Repositories
Especially for emigrants, convicts, merchants, and military matters.

 
6. Church Archives

Baptisms, marriages, burials, pew lists, and vestry records can be gold.

 
7. Digitized Databases
Search modern collections repeatedly. New material appears all the time.

Lost Records
Some colonial records were destroyed by war, fire, weather, and time. However, a burned courthouse does not always mean a dead end. Search for the following in your state archives and repositories: 

• tax rolls
• neighboring county records
• church records
• newspapers
• land transfers
• probate heirs
• militia lists
• court references in later cases

The trail may be faint, but it is often still there.