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Search for Victorian convicts in Milbank, Parkhurst and Pentonville prison records

 

TheGenealogist has released over 100,000 individuals into their expanding Court & Criminal Records collection. With this release researchers can find the details of ancestors that had broken the law and were incarcerated in the harsh conditions of early Victorian convict prisons - including some that were only children!

Parkhurst Prison from The Illustrated London News March 13, 1847

 

The new data will allow the family history researcher to discover:

 

     Over 100,000 individuals in records covering the years 1838 to 1875

     Registers of prisoners inside Millbank, Parkhurst and Pentonville prisons.

     Each prisoner's age on conviction

     The marital status and whether the prisoner can read or write

     The convict’s former trade

     When and where they were convicted, their crime, sentence, where and whence received, previous offences, when removed and to where.

 

These fully searchable records are from the HO24 Home Office: Prison Registers and Returns 1838-1875 for Millbank, Parkhurst and Pentonville.

Read TheGenealogist’s article “Criminal records can reveal ancestors locked up in convict prisons” at:

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/criminal-records-can-reveal-ancestors-locked-up-in-convict-prisons-1122/

 

About TheGenealogist

 

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections.

 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

 

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

 

 

 About The National Archives

The National Archives is one of the world’s most valuable resources for research and an independent research organisation in its own right. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and England and Wales they are the guardians of some of the UK's most iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible. The National Archives brings together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historic documents as well as leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

 

For the latest stories, follow the Media Team on Twitter @TNAmediaofficer

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TheGenealogist releases half a million Criminal Records adding significantly to its Court & Criminal

Prison Hulk Records

TheGenealogist has enlarged its Court & Criminal Records collection so that even more black sheep ancestors can now be searched for and found on its site. With a new release of records you can unearth all sorts of ancestors who came up against the law - whether they were a victim, acquitted, convicted of a minor offence or found guilty of a major crime such as murder. These fully searchable records cover HO77 - The Home Office: Criminal Registers, England and Wales and ADM 6 - The Registers of Convicts in Prison Hulks Cumberland, Dolphin and Ganymede with indexes from The National Archives.
  • Uniquely this release allows you the ability to search for victims of the crime (Over 132,000)
  • Hunt for people using their name or alias, or look for an offence
  • See images of the pages from the books and registers that reveal even more fascinating information about the individual
As these records cover a vast range of transgressions we are able to find men and women who stole small items such as shirts, potatoes, boots etc. We can also discover people who had married bigamously, forged money, uttered a counterfeit half-crown, burgled, murdered or were accused of many more other crimes. One example of a number of unusual offences found in TheGenealogist’s new release, is that of Christian Crane, tried in February 1811 - ‘Being a person of evil fame and a reputed thief’ was adjudged to be ‘a rogue and vagabond’. These records, joining those already available within TheGenealogist’s Court & Criminal collection, will reveal the sentence of the court handed out to our ancestors. Judgements can be seen to vary massively from a fine, a short imprisonment in Newgate, a public whipping, a longer spell inside, or the ultimate sanction of death.

Newgate Prison

Other ancestors were sentenced to be ‘transported beyond the seas’ and TheGenealogist already has many registers of convicts sent to Australia between 1787 and 1867. Joining them in this new release are the ADM 6 records for convicts who were waiting to begin their voyage to the penal colonies in Australia and were locked up on a number of Prison Hulks. You can search for your lawless ancestor at www.thegenealogist.co.uk Or see their article: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2017/criminal-records-discover-black-sheep-ancestors-621/
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TheGenealogist releases Quarter Session Records and Middlesex Colour Tithe Maps

TheGenealogist is adding to its Court & Criminal records by publishing online a new collection of Quarter Session rolls and books from Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Surrey and Middlesex covering dates from as far back as the 16th century and up to, in some cases, the Victorian period.   Also released at this time are the Middlesex Colour Tithe Maps to join the grayscale maps of the National Tithe records already available on TheGenealogist. This latest issue covers parishes in the County of Middlesex and will allow researchers to view the plots where their ancestors may have owned or occupied land at the time of the survey which took place at the start of Victoria’s reign.

Colour Tithe Map for New Brentford, Middlesex 1838

The Quarter Session records were produced by local courts traditionally held at four set times each year. Being made up of two or more justices of the peace and presided over by a chairman, they sat with a jury at Epiphany (in January), Easter (March/April), Midsummer (June/July) and then at Michaelmas (September/October).  
  • Find the names of people before the courts that include those indicted, witnesses, as well as the names of the Justices of the Peace and the Clerks
  • Some of the earliest records in this release reach as far back as 1549 for Middlesex and 1591 in Worcester
  • Indictments can range across a wide number of offences. These include Larceny, Housebreaking, Assault and Riot, Running Unlicensed Alehouses, Receiving Rogues and Not Going to Church on Sunday
  We may be amazed at some of the cases that came before the magistrates. One example we found was in 1613, before the Worcestershire Justices, where Margaret Lewys stole ‘an old towell’ at Feckenham. Other proceedings include one involving Daniel Steane who was fined 20s at a private session at Wolston, Warwickshire in 1631. His indictment was for ‘selling less than a full quart of his best ale for a penny’ -  showing us that consumers, back then, were equally as concerned with short measures of alcohol as they are today.   Searching these new records, for your ancestors, may also find them appearing in the many Orders handed down by the JPs. These can include the names of people at the bottom rung of society who were in need of financial help from their communities. An example of such, from the Easter 1625 session in Warwickshire, is the case of Anne Harte of Hampton in Arden. Her husband having been ‘pressed for a soldier out of this county and have left her destitute of maintenance and one child’, the Justices of the Quarter Sessions made an order to the effect that Hampton in Arden pay her 4d weekly and find her work; plus, if she were to get sick, the parish officials were to pay her more ‘until this court take order to the contrary’.   Orders for the upkeep of illegitimate children can also be found in these records. In Michaelmas 1632, Katherine Singleton was to have ‘10s out of the treasury towards the keeping of a bastard child’ that had been left with her by a man who had promised to pay her to look after the child and had not returned.   From riotous Luddites to the gentry sitting on the bench, all echelons of society can be found in these fully searchable Quarter Session records for Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Surrey and Middlesex. To search these and the many other records, including the National Tithe Records on TheGenealogist, go to: www.thegenealogist.co.uk  
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Anne Reid's family history reveals ancestor Transported to Tasmania

  For many  of us Anne Reid is a familiar face on our TV screens. Perhaps we remember her as  Valerie Barlow from Coronation Street, or Jean in Dinner ladies? Or it may be from the more recent series of programmes in which she stars along side Derek Jacobi as Celia Dawson in Last Tango in Halifax. Acclaimed British actress Anne Reid MBE, is the next of the celebrities to feature in the Who Do You Think You Are? programmes. In her episode she discovers that her family tree features ancestors who were employed as solicitor’s clerks in Liverpool, but who came originally from Scotland. Tracing this respectable line further back in the records she comes across a Scots schoolmaster and becomes upset to find out that he ended up marooned on the other side of the world having served a sentence for fraud that saw him transported to Australia from Scotland. Read TheGenealogist's full article here...

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The Real "Banished" Character found in TheGenealogist Records

I was intrigued to read on TheGenelaogist's website, that their researchers have discovered the real story of James Freeman, as played by Russell Tovey in the BBC TV series Banished. As they say in their article "Freeman's real story is fascinating, if a bit gruesome." I won't  spoil it for you, as you can read it all by heading over to their featured articles on their website here: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2015/hang-or-be-hanged-the-finisher-of-the-law-237/ What I can tell you is that the Transportation records to be found on TheGenealogist website is a fabulous resource for discovering convict ancestors that this country wanted to send away "to parts beyond the seas".

Programme Name: Banished - TX: n/a - Episode: n/a (No. n/a) - Picture Shows:  James Freeman (RUSSELL TOVEY) - (C) RSJ Films - Photographer: Matt Squire

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New records available on TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist has just released over 90,000 criminal records which cover indictable offences in England and Wales between 1782 and 1892. The records also uniquely cover prisoners 'pardoned' and those classed as 'criminal lunatics'. This creates a significant collection of Transportation and Convict records of nearly 500,000 records. It's a useful resource if you had an ancestor who fell foul of the law and paid the consequences! There's more details available at http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/news.php#latest

Criminal Records

New criminal records released by TheGenealogist.co.uk

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