{"id":157357,"date":"2025-08-25T18:01:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T18:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=157357"},"modified":"2025-08-25T18:01:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T18:01:55","slug":"reviving-australias-convict-past-via-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/reviving-australias-convict-past-via-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviving Australia\u2019s Convict Past via AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviving Australia\u2019s Convict Past via AI<\/span><\/h2>\n

Source:<\/span><\/strong>Thuppahis<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Tomos Morgan,\u00a0<\/strong>BBC News,<\/em>\u00a019 August 2025, where\u00a0 the title runs thus:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cFaces of Welsh convicts sent to Australia recreated by AI\u201d\u00a0++<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has helped researchers generate what they believe could have been the faces of Welsh convicts sent to Australia in the 19th century. The lives of 60 criminals deported from Anglesey for crimes as small as stealing a handkerchief have been traced by a team of volunteers and researchers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"elanka\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

They have used\u00a0<\/strong>detailed prisoner records from the time, historical sketches and,\u00a0where possible, photos of the prisoners\u2019 modern day descendants to create a profile of what they may have looked li<\/strong>ke.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most convicts had been found guilty of theft, with many being repeat offenders, but some were deported for crimes as petty as trampling on the turnips of the local aristocracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

An estimated 162,000 convicts were sent to Australia, at least 1,000 of which were Welsh.<\/strong>\u00a0They included John Frost, one of the leaders of the\u00a0Chartist movement and the Newport Rising<\/a>, who was initially sentenced to death before his sentence was\u00a0reduced to transportation to Van Diemen\u2019s Land<\/a>, as Tasmania was then called.<\/span><\/p>\n

Roger Vincent has been a volunteer guide at Beaumaris Gaol on Anglesey for a number of years. The jail was in operation for just under 50 years in the 1800s, its 31 cells housing both men and women \u2013 separated \u2013 in total silence. Any talking was met with solitary confinement.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a holiday to Australia, Mr Vincent began wondering about the historical connections between the two countries. \u201cI was amazed how many people had been transported to Australia, so I started concentrating on that and I found 60 Anglesey islanders that were transported to Australia over a relatively short period,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Vincent spent hours searching through the archives in Llangefni, Anglesey, to trace the lives of those deported and found that some of the crimes committed, and sentences given, were extremely harsh compared to today. They include:<\/span><\/p>\n