Peter Wilson Coldham

Who was Peter Wilson Coldham?

Peter Wilson Coldham, was a British genealogist.

Coldham was awarded the Bickersteth Medal in 1991, was a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists and Fellow of the Society of Genealogists.

He wrote over 26 books and multiple monographs and magazine articles, including many standard works on Anglo-American genealogy.

The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775

Between 1614 and 1775 more than 50,000 English men, women, and children were sentenced to be deported to the American colonies for crimes ranging from the theft of a handkerchief to bigamy or highway robbery and sold as indentured servants from 7 to 14 years depending upon the crime against the crown. After years of painstaking research, the names of nearly all those transported were extracted from official court records by Peter Coldham and published in the landmark work The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage in 1988 and its Supplement in 1992, forming the largest and most complete passenger list of its kind ever published. From this unexpected source the researcher at last had the means of learning the names of the persons transported to the colonies, the charges against them, the dates and places of sentencing, the ship names, and the places of arrival in the colonies.