The Sarah Lyons Story

Journal article

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In Journal Issue

Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 25, 4 (2022)

Author(s) Elizabeth A Warren AbstractMy Jewish ancestors arrived in Australia on the First Fleet on 26 January 1788 and the ship Lady Juliana on 3 June 3, 1790. Some ancestors were convicts while others served in the military. Some of these were English with some originating in Ireland but I knew nothing of this until 1997. After learning of this history, I developed an interest in the historiography of Australia's European genesis and a search led to finding a woman convict, my first female ancestor here. She had at various times used a number of names and, in asking why, I soon realised she may have had good reasons. Sarah Lyons was a convict from the ill-noted Lady Juliana; she was Jewish, and I discovered that the stigma of Jewishness as well as the erroneous belief of whoredom that incorrectly plagued so many early women here, as well as her convict status, may have been the reasons why so many of her records were burnt during the 1950s, at a time when shame at coming from such people was at its zenith.
Year2022
Pages552-580
Keyword(s)Australian History; Family History; Convicts and Early Settlers; Biography; Women; Sarah Lyons