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The State, Convicts and Longitudinal Analysis

In 2006 the Records of the Tasmanian Convict Department were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. This extraordinarily intact collection of records document the lives of 73,000 male and female prisoners transported to Van Diemen’s Land. This article examines ways in which this information can be used to explore the impact of forced labour migration on the lives of convicts. It focuses in particular on the assembly of cradle-to-grave datasets. Such longitudinal approaches to the past can be powerful, especially where they involve the analysis of multiple life course events for a large number of individuals. The first part of the article explores ways in which quantitative approaches can be used to reconstruct the circumstances that shaped the creation of record groups. The second part examines the way in which longitudinal analysis can be used to analyse the impact of state action on the lives of convicts.