British Parliamentary publications are valuable primary sources for research into British and dominion history, including Australia.

How to find votes and proceedings of the House of Commons, minutes of proceedings and order papers of the House of Lords, and the journals for each house.

British Parliamentary debates are of interest to those studying public issues in Great Britain, particularly social and political history and law.

A bill is a proposal for a new law which is debated by Parliament. There are separate sets of bills for both the Houses of Commons and Lords.

A Bill which has received Royal Assent becomes an Act.

After sentence, some convicts spent time on a prison hulk awaiting transportation. A prison hulk was a decommissioned ship used for housing prisoners.

Convict journals provide a glimpse of convict life on the voyage to Australia, and sometimes accounts of colonial life. There are very few convict journals which have survived.

Sometimes it can be difficult to determine exactly when and where your convict ancestor arrived in Australia. You may need to check a few of the following sources to find the person you are looking for.

Upon arrival, a convict was usually assigned to a master, the Female Factory or to Public Works. Who and where a convict was assigned to was recorded in an assignment register. 

Female convicts were predominantly young, single women who had been domestic servants and/or who had come from a semi-skilled background - such as an apprenticeship.