Barbara Hall

It was the day she discovered she was descended from a Dublin highwayman and a madam of a brothel that her interest in genealogy was sparked. That was 15 years ago.

The Sydney-based historian decided to put into context those prisoners with whom her ancestors were transported on the Marquis Cornwallis in 1796, and the first book, A Desperate Set of Villains, was born. Since then Barbara has chronicled the lives of all those other very early prisoners transported between 1790 and 1797 on the Queen (1791), Sugar Cane (1793), Boddingtons (1793) and Britannia (1797).

The primary research areas are convicts transported from Ireland to New South Wales between 1790 and 1806. The resources that she scrutinises include:

• Freemans Journal or The Public Register
• Belfast Newsletter
• Hibernian Chronicle
• Irish Transportation Records
• Historical Records of Australia
• Historical Records of New South Wales
• New South Wales Musters
• Sydney Gazette
• All colonial court and government records

Barbara has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and on RTÉ radio in Ireland. Her next book, on the rebels of the Minerva, will be published in 2010.

Cassie Mercer

Cassie has been working in publishing since 1999, after completing a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and Psychology at the University of Queensland. She has worked as a sub editor and writer for UNSW Press, New Holland Publishers, Pacific Magazines and ACP Magazines in Sydney, and IPC Media, Edward Elgar and the National Magazine Company in London.

Cassie is the editor and publisher of the Irish Wattle publications. She is currently writing a biography on Irish convicts Edward Turley and Jane Maher, two shady characters with sedition on their mind.