Researcher
Tue Jun 10 2025
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< 5 minutes read
Our ancestors found themselves in trouble with the law for all sorts of reasons. Criminal records can reveal fascinating - and sometimes surprising - details about their lives. Here’s how to find out if one of your relatives spent time in prison.
Clues that your relative was involved in a crime
From family anecdotes
Family stories, particularly involving dramatic goings-on or shady characters, are often passed down through the generations. If you’ve been told stories about a criminal ancestor, this will give you an obvious place to start.
From your genealogical research
When building your family tree, you’ll use key genealogy records like birth, marriage and death records (BMDs) to trace ancestors back through the generations. Along the way, you may find an ancestor who encountered the criminal justice system. They may have been the perpetrator, the victim, or a witness.
There are a few things that might suggest your ancestor was involved in a crime:
- If any of their records contain the word ‘convict’, or if a prison or labour institution was listed as their address.
- There’s a gap in their census entries, a sudden change of occupation, or a long absence from their family home. These clues may hint at a stint in prison, particularly if you’ve heard family stories of a wayward relative.
- If their name changed over time - if an ancestor moved overseas and changed their name, it may have been to obscure a criminal past.
From petty theft to cases that made national headlines, practically everyone has stories of crime within their family tree.
Search crime records online
If you suspect an ancestor may have been involved in a crime in any capacity, you can delve deeper into the story with online family history records. Millions of British, Irish and international court and prison records have been digitised and made searchable on genealogy websites like Findmypast.
To locate your relative’s records, search:
- Criminal Registers: Covering England and Wales from the late 18th century, these list names, crimes, verdicts, and sentences.
- Prison Registers: Often including physical descriptions, dates of imprisonment, and behavioural notes.
- Court Records: Assize and Quarter Sessions provide detailed case summaries and trial outcomes.
When searching, be sure to use name variants and flexible date ranges, as the record you’re looking for may contain different information than you’d expect. People with lengthy criminal histories may appear more than once in the records, allowing you to piece together their story over years or decades.
Explore old newspaper articles
Crimes and court cases were often sensationally reported in the press, so be sure to search online newspapers to get the full story. There are millions of digitised newspaper pages available online. Findmypast’s newspaper collection, for example, is the largest online archive of British and Irish newspapers. If you know the location of the crime, checking local news titles from the area may prove useful.
When searching old newspaper articles, you can use name, date, and location filters to uncover:
- Full trial accounts
- Mugshots or sketches
- Public reaction and editorials
While prison registers and court records provide key details like names, offences and verdicts, newspaper coverage helps you to delve deeper. You may uncover vivid character descriptions of your ancestors, direct quotes from trials, and verbatim reactions of local communities.
Search transportation and penal colony records
In the 18th and 19th centuries, many British and Irish convicts were sentenced to transportation - banishment to penal colonies, especially in Australia. This means that stories of crime weren’t confined to one country but rather have an international dimension that can make tracing them slightly trickier.
If your ancestor seems to have ‘vanished’ from British records at a certain point, check:
- Transportation registers: These show who was sent abroad, for how long, and what ship they left on.
- Convict records from Australia: These include conduct registers, pardons and tickets of leave, and often describe their behaviour and lifestyle in the colony.
Even a short prison sentence could result in transportation for repeat offenders, so check carefully if your relative had a criminal history.
Look for clues in their later life
The paper trail doesn't end upon the close of court proceedings or the fulfilment of a prison sentence. Former inmates might appear in later records as labourers, emigrants, or even decorated soldiers, but terms like ‘ex-convict’ can help you to trace their life story backwards.
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