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Some abbreviations, words or terms you may come across when researching convicts or colonial times

= … married
ABGR … Australian Biographical & Genealogical Record

AGCI … Australian Genealogical Computer Index

AJCP … Australian Joint Copying Project

AO or SAO … (Sate) Archives Office

AP … Absolute Pardon

ARK … Archives  Research Kit  (State Records of NSW)

AS … Assigned Servant

Assizes & Quarter Session Courts … The Court of Assize or Assizes, were periodic criminal courts held around England & Wales until 1972, when together with the Quarter Sessions,  they were abolished and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The Assizes heard the  more serious cases, which were committed to it by the Quarter Sessions (local county courts heard 4 times a year) while the more minor offences were dealt summarily  with Justices of the Peace in petty sessions also known as Magistrates Courts

b. … born

BC … Born in Colony

Bond … A convict serving their sentence

C of F … Certificate of Freedom

Census NSW 1828 … A survey of those in the colony in 1828--it does not include the military

CF … came free

Circa. or c. … Approximately or about

Col. Sec. … Colonial Secretary

CP … Conditional Pardon

Currency lass or lad … free born children of convicts

Deal or Downs … Ships anchored in the Downs of the town of Deal and here they awaited for favourable winds. The Downs is the harbour of Deal and is enclosed by the North and South Forelands, as well as the deadly Goodwin Sands

E or EM  or Eman, … Emancipated

Exclusives … Free settlers--sometimes wealthy colonists

FS or FBS … Free by servitude

GD or Gaol Delivery … an authority conferred upon judges and others
included in it for trying and delivering every prisoner in gaol when the Judges, upon their circuit, arrive at the place for holding court …

GS … Government Servant--a convict

HPB … Hyde Park Barracks

HRA … Historical Records of Australia

IGI … International Genealogical Index

Indent … Convict passenger list or convict arrival musters

m. … married

Moreton Bay … now Brisbane Queensland (Penal colony established 1824)

Muster … A listing/counting people in the colony, free and convict

NAI … National Records of Ireland

NLA … National Library of Australia  - Canberra

OB … Old Bailey

PJ … Port Jackson, Sydney

PRO … Public Records Office--Kew, England

Pure Merinos or Sterling … Children of the Exclusives (non convicts)

SAG … Society of Australian Genealogists

SLV … State Library of Victoria

SRNSW … State Records of NSW

T of E … Ticket of Exemption

VDL … Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)