Ellen Rebecca WILSON when aged 7 years,  accompanied her convict mother, Margaret Wilson, to Van Diemans Land on the ship Edward in 1834. 

Ellen was sent to the Orphan's School and she was the girl sexually molested by the teacher.  She was discharged from the Orphan's School aged 14 at the time her mother finished her 7 year sentence.

Ellen married John Thomas, a ticket of leave convict, in Hobart in 1850.  John became a police constable and then the licensee of three hotels in Hobart.  They had five children...John Lewis, Anna Eugenie, Mary Ann, Louisa and Margaret Helen.  In 1870 John was granted a police pension but his wife (Ellen Rebecca) was noted as being of "bad character".

John died in New Norfolk in 1880 from amentia aged 62.  He was buried in a pauper's grave.

Their son John Lewis was my great grandfather and worked as a fireman on the City of Hobart (a steamer).  He married Catherine Meade.   It is rumoured that John Lewis later committed suicide.

Their son William Thomas was my grandfather and worked in Sydney as a carriage builder on the railways. He was born in 1874 in Elizabeth Street, Sydney.   

I would love to hear from anyone who has an association with this family.