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Behind many of our ancestors are stories that you may not want to uncover. Nicknames often give away the real person. Yet many that were detailed as a criminal, were actually no more than a kid playing truancy.
Nothing delights a family historian more than a rogue ancestor. Juicy tales of highwaymen and bandits, with their crimes separated from us by a few hundred years, serve to make them less frightening and even more fascinating, fortunately there is a wealth of records that can be plundered to reveal the lives of your criminal ancestors.
If your relatives found themselves arrested, they will undoubtedly have been recorded in police, court and prison records, The long arm of the law reached across all levels of society from 1700ยท1800, but with more than 200 capital offences on the Statute Books, and the fact that you could be transported for stealing a loaf of bread, it fell hardest on the poor and uneducated.
Each stage of the criminal justice proceedings generated paperwork, much of which has survived in national, county and local record offices, libraries and police archives, although survival rates do vary across time and place. You may even be fortunate enough to find a photograph of your wrongdoer (or at least a physical description of them) dating back to the 19th Century.
Records of prisoners on trial would reveal several details including there identity, their education, why they were arrested and what crimes had been committed and finally the verdict.
If a person was wearing a hat when he was arrested, two photographs would e taken one with it on and one without. So you may be lucky to find to photos of your criminal ancestor.
It's worth noting that charges could be made on what would be considered a very small crime in today's justice system. Crimes such as playing football in the street or having a dog without a licence would appear regularly.
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