December 20th, 2011 
Linda Elliott 
If you find some police officers in your ancestry and they served in the Metropolitan Police Force then this is the site for you.
Timelines, gallery of old images, history of policing and details of the archives. Plenty to read and see and there is advice on how to access and use the records that the archives hold.
Plus there are pages dedicated to some of the more famous historical criminals that the Met has had dealings with.
http://www.met.police.uk/history/
October 21st, 2011 Linda Elliott 
Today, Findmypast.ie launched online for the first time the Irish Prison Registers 1790-1920, one of the greatest untapped resources for those tracing their Irish roots.
The original Prison Registers, held at the National Archives of Ireland, cover all types of custodial institutions, from bridewells, to county prisons, to sanatoriums for alcoholics. They contain over 3.5 million entries, spread over 130,000 pages, with most records giving comprehensive details of the prisoner, including: name, address, place of birth, occupation, religion, education, age, physical description, name and address of next of kin, crime committed, sentence, dates of committal and release/decease.
The registers offer a real insight into 18th-19th century Ireland. They present evidence of a society of rebellion and social confrontation, where rioting and assault of police officers were everyday occurrences, and of rampant poverty and destitution, with the theft of everything from handkerchiefs to turnips.
August 22nd, 2011 Linda Elliott 
If you have ancestors who were involved in the Swing Riots of 1830 then you will be interested in this website. John Owen Smith gives good background history of the riots that occurred in Selborne, Hampshire.
On the front page of this site there are some good links to history websites for this area of Hampshire.
http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/riot/index.htm
March 17th, 2011 Linda Elliott 
The Coventry Family History Society has several online databases that you can search for free.
Coventry Family History Society –
This database contains some extracts from the register of boats working the Coventry canal. It covers the years 1879 to 1936 and is searchable on the surname of owners and masters.
Convict Register -
A copy of The Convicts Register is held in Coventry Archives under Reference 1755/1. This gives further information about the convicts including usually their photograph and sometimes details of their convictions. The page shown against each name refers to the page in the register. For a few names no page is shown as it is known to be missing. Some convicts had aliases and these have been included in the index.
Lascelles City Directory 1850 -
Trade directory for Coventry.
Plus details of how to join the Family History Society, their publications and Research Aids.
Posted in Crime & Punishment, Directories, Guides & Gazetteers, Getting Started, Occupational Records, Societies & Organisations, What Did They Do?, Where Did They Live? 
Tags: Coventry Convict Register, Coventry Family History Society, Family History, Genealogy, Lascelles City Directory 1850 
No Comments » February 21st, 2011 Linda Elliott 
Here is Jill Chambers website, Jill is sister to Barbara, who is the author of a very good site on researching ancestors in the Napoleonic Wars.
Jill’s area of interest is the Swing Riots 1830 – 1831, I have an ancestors, Enos Diddams, who was very involved in this period of civil unrest in England. Jill is the author of a numbers of books giving background history and details of those involved in the riots and what happened to them.
So if you have family living along the south coast at this time and they seem to disappear then you need to check out if they were involved in the riots and what was their fate. Sentences for those caught ranged from hanging to transportation to fines.
Great site, well worth a look even if your folk weren’t ag labs.
http://www.swingriotsriotersblacksheepsearch.com/
June 10th, 2010 Linda Elliott
Were your ancestors “boozers”? Did they out-stay their welcome in the public houses of Birmingham? You may not want to know, but if you do them visit www.ancestry.co.uk and using the Card Catalogue access the Birmingham Pub Blacklist 1903 – 1906. The good news about this list is that it contains photos of those banned, but then perhaps that’s not good news !!
Each entry includes both a picture (usually with a front and profile view) and a description with such details as:
If you have a subscription simply log in and go to the Card Catalogue, if not them click here for a 14 day free trial.
January 25th, 2010 Linda Elliott
Press Release from Ancestry.co.uk……….
New Convict Records Now Online Enable 2m Brits to Trace Aussie Ancestors From Arrest to Release
Ancestry.co.uk, the UK’s Number One family history website2, today launched online the Convict Registers of Conditional and Absolute Pardons, 1791-1846 and the New South Wales Certificates of Freedom, 1827-1867, which ‘completes’ the journey from arrest to release of almost one third of all convicts transported to Australia.
These two important collections bring the total of criminal and convict records available in Ancestry.co.uk’s Australian Convicts Collection to more than 2.3 million, making it the most comprehensive online convict resource.
Ancestry.co.uk estimates that more than two million Britons are descended from convicts, meaning that there is a one in 30 chance that they will have ancestor included in the records.
To celebrate this milestone four-year project, the 15 collections which comprise the Australian Convicts Collection will be available for FREE on Ancestry.co.uk for seven days from Sunday the 24th of January3.
The Convict Registers of Conditional and Absolute Pardons, 1791-1846, contain details of more than 21,000 pardons granted to convicts transported to New South Wales. A conditional pardon entitled a convict to their freedom but not to return home, while an absolute pardon gave them full citizen rights, in and out of the colony.
The New South Wales Certificates of Freedom, 1827-1867, contain details of more than 34,000 certificates granted to those who had completed a fixed seven, 10 or 14 year term. Convicts with a life sentence could receive a pardon but not a certificate.
Other collections FREE to search from January 24th include England and Wales Criminal Registers, the Convict Transportation Registers, Convict Muster Rolls, Convict Applications to Marry, Convict Death Registers, and a variety of other record sets documenting the trial, journey, working life, release and death of the majority of convicts transported.
English criminal and Australian convict records are a cornerstone for UK researchers with Australian ancestors and contain a variety of personal information such as name, date and place of conviction, crime and trial details, term of sentence, name of ship, departure date and colony to which convicts were sent.
Also included can be occupation, a physical description and the convict’s religion – and most records are fully searchable and include links to original document images.
Between 1788 and 1842 more than 80,000 convicts were transported just to New South Wales4, which became a British colony after it was discovered in 1770 by Captain James Cook.
Australia became the most convenient location to transport the many convicts who could no longer fit into Britain’s overcrowded prisons following the American Revolution in 1776, which made transportation there impossible. In 1787, the first 11 ships carrying convicts to Australia – known as The First Fleet – set sail for New South Wales, arriving eight months later.
Among the thousands of convicts detailed in the collection are a number of famous names and infamous criminals, including:
Study of the records reveals a number of significant increases in convict transportations linked to key events in British history. For example, the number transportations rose dramatically between 1845 and 1847 as the Great Famine ravaged Ireland and left thousands starving.
The famine catalyzed Irish immigration to England, but extreme poverty forced many new arrivals to turn to crime; and many were subsequently transported to Australia.
An estimated 90 per cent of all convicts appear in the England & Wales Criminal Registers, 1791-1892, which includes all 1.4 million criminal trials which took place in England and Wales from the late 18th to the late 19th centuries and is included in this promotion.
Ancestry.co.uk International Content Director Dan Jones comments: “The new convict records now online will finally enable up to two million Brits to trace the full journey of their convict ancestor from arrest to release.
“While Australia’s convict history itself has been well documented, there are thousands of individual stories in the collection just waiting to be told.”
To search the world’s largest online collection of convict records FREE this Australia Day, log onto www.ancestry.co.uk.
1 163,021 convicts were deported between 1787 and 1867, with the midpoint and peak of deportation being the early to mid 1830s. The average convict had five siblings meaning convicts left behind 800,000 brothers and sisters. The population at this time stood at approximately 15,700,000, meaning relatives of convicts made up around 5.1 per cent of the population. Taking into account emigration and migration since the end of convict deportation, this sample of 800,000 people will have grown into a population of around two million (1.95 million) or 3.33 per cent of the current population (one in 30). This is a broad estimate. Sources include ONS trends data, Papers of the Royal Commission on Population, and the 1841-1901 Censuses
2 Based on market share of visits among UK websites in the Hitwise Lifestyle – Family Industry, January-June 2009
3 Access to the convict records will be free from 24th until 30th January 2010 (GMT)
4 Figures from the New South Wales Government – http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/resources-for/family-historians/convicts
November 21st, 2009 Linda Elliott
Do you have prisoners lurking in your family tree? I certainly do!! My John Cannon who was convicted of stealing an oak post features on this web site along with inmates of gaols in Bedford, Cambridge, Ely & Huntingdon. These databases give plenty of details to keep genealogists happy. There is also general information on justice in the 19th century, gaols and case studies. Great site.
September 24th, 2009 Linda Elliott 
The Newgate Calendar also known as the Malefactor’s Bloody Register was published between 1700 – 1850 it provides details of criminals and trials. I think the idea was that it should be used as an example of what happens if you broke the law, bet the criminals never read it!
http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/completenewgate.htm
September 24th, 2009 Linda Elliott
The National Library of Wales website offers the Crime and Punishment database comprises data about crimes, criminals and punishments included in the gaol files of the Court of Great Sessions in Wales from 1730 until its abolition in 1830. The Court could try all types of crimes, from petty thefts to high treason. In practice, most of the petty crimes were heard at the Courts of Quarter Sessions, whose records are held by the Welsh county record offices. Details about these records can be searched at Archives Network Wales. The records of the Court of Great Sessions do not include cases tried in Monmouthshire since that county formed part of the Oxford Assize circuit, whose records are held by the National Archives. There are, however, a number of cases of Monmouthshire interest on this database.
http://www.llgc.org.uk/sesiwn_fawr/index_s.htm
Hi, I am Linda Elliott, a genealogist with 30+ years experience in ancestor hunting. I work as a professional family historian and have helped many people with their family trees. My aim with Mad About Genealogy is to share with you, the many website links, information and the latest genealogy news that I come across. I hope you enjoy your visit to my website and will come and visit on a regular basis.
